Outre Monde
by M et M
Summary: Mayhem and butterfly effects meet in an unlikely encounter. Two girls, two words: Self. Insert.
1. Arrival of the Thieves

**Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, and Teen Titans and everything that might be recognizable belongs to their respective authors.**

A/N:

**Moka:** _Hello everyone! This story is, as you can guess, a Teen Titans self insert. There were so few of them we had to contribute, Mistress and I. I have another account under the penname 'Moka-girl'. However, this account was made so that all the works with Mistress and I can be posted here, and we're not planning to stop this collaboration anytime soon! So that means this account will have a lot of update! We've planned on posting chapters of ten thousand words, no less, about once every month._

_This will be dealing with the repercussions of two fans coming to this world, and just how much damage they can make, maybe without even planning to._

_My character is Moka, and her real name is Megan. Mistress is written by my partner in crime, and her real name is Angel. At first we'll use the real names, but steadily throughout the story we'll use the pen names more and more, until the original ones are forgotten._

-x-x-x-

Sitting on a black leather couch, half-lidded eyes staring at the TV screen, was a young woman. She was fingering her remote, entertaining the thought of switching off the TV to go back to her room. Yet she still knew she wanted to watch the DVD until the end. However, at that moment, she heard it.

A scream.

Or, to be more accurate, her half-brother's wailing.

She rolled her eyes, and turned the volume up.

Her brother, Ellis, would start wailing whenever nobody was holding him. He was used to the babysitter being at his beck and call, and since his mother also had to take care of his other siblings, he would often be crying.

Megan had hoped he would keep quiet just a little longer so she could finish the episode she was watching, but alas, it was not to be. Barely a minute after Ellis had started crying, she pressed Pause and left the couch, internally moaning at the fact that she was leaving the spot on the couch she had been warming up for a while now. She left the living room and walked up the stairs. Corinne, her step-mother, was changing Evan, and looked quite stressed. So when she asked Megan to take care of Ellis for five minutes, Megan said yes.

Ellis was in his cot, his face red from crying. His hair was wet with sweat, and he appeared quite unhappy. Cooing, Megan unclasped the little sleeping bag from where it was attached by his shoulders, and lifted him up. He stopped screaming immediately, and went silent. She rubbed his back, humming a little melody, and went back down to the TV.

Now, normally what she was watching, Teen Titans, wouldn't be appropriate for young kids. But Ellis was barely eight months old - he wasn't watching the telly yet, so we wouldn't see the fighting scenes and get any ideas.

Megan sat him down on her lap, with her bag of chocolate almonds just out of his reach so he wouldn't accidently start eating them and choke on one. She reached for the remote and unpaused her episode.

Barely a second later, in a flash of light, Ellis dropped down on the couch, nobody holding him anymore. He started crying again, but Megan wasn't there to comfort him any longer. She was gone.

-x-x-x-

Angel sighed, parking her car. She turned off the motor and pulled the keys from the ignition. Brushing some of her hair behind her ear, she opened the car door. With a quick stretch, she cracked her neck, groaning.

The woman pocketed the keys and grabbed the grocery bags on the passenger seat, as well as her purse. She hopped out of the car and pushed the door closed with her hip. She pressed a little button and heard the sound that meant her car was properly locked.

Angel struggled to hold the multitude of bags and managed to not drop any on her way to her front door. She kicked at it instead of knocking, her hands too full to do otherwise.

Finally, about three minutes later, her nephew Ian answered. Unhappy at having waited so long, she yelled at him to hurry and help her with her load. He rolled his eyes and took the bags from her left hand.

Angel sighed, relieved, and carried the rest in. On her way she snatched the remote controller from her niece Fallon. The girl whined but Angel just shushed her and switched it from Wow Wow Wubbzy to Cartoon Network.

With a whoop of joy, she realized that they were showing old cartoons all day long. The Dexter's Lab marathon was on its last episode and the Teen Titans one was coming on right after.

The woman loved the Teen Titans cartoon. It was equal parts seriousness and humour and she liked that. So she put the remote in her messenger bag to ensure her niece and nephew couldn't change the channel, and left to put the food away.

Once all that was done Angel went and gleefully plopped down on the couch. The first episode of Teen Titans was coming on and the opening song was playing.

Twenty seconds in, the phone rang. Unwilling to move, she just told Ian to go pick it up. He groaned but obliged, rising up and going to the back of the house to answer. Once he was gone and the phone quit ringing Angel settled in to watch her show.

The Warner Bros logo came up and she smiled. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen Bugs Bunny next to it but it sure brought back old memories.

Her niece chose that moment to interrupt her moment of peace.

"Angel, this show is boring. Can't we watch Code Lyoko or Goosebumps?"

Angel said no, so Fallon left with a huff towards her room, presumably to colour or to draw, the woman didn't really care. She was tired and just wanted to watch her show.

But apparently it was not to be. Because just as the Hive logo came up and Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth came on, the screen flickered and started freaking out. Angel cursed. Ian had heard, because she heard him yell from the back of the house that he was going to snitch on her. Rolling her eyes, she adjusted her glasses before fishing the remote from her bag.

Angel tried pressing every button she could think of, however none of them made the static and choppy images clear up. She attempted changing channels but they were all similarly messed up. She stomped over to the side of the TV and smacked it a few times.

Nothing.

There wasn't anything that worked, much to her frustration. As if to screw with her even more, the screen then went blank. She had just begun thinking the TV had somehow turned off when a bright flash lit up the whole living room.

When it faded away, the tall brunette was gone. It would be some time before anyone noticed her absence.

-x-x-x-

Angel shivered as she woke. It was colder than it should've been. Sleepily, she figured she must have left her air conditioner on before falling asleep. But the mere idea was odd.

She didn't remember falling asleep.

According to her memories, she had gone shopping for groceries and had then gone back home and watched some tv.

Something was digging into her back, and she groaned. The brunette reached underneath her body and froze, feeling... grass?

Quickly sitting up to take a look at the situation, she opened her eyes, but her body seemed unhappy about her rising, as it sent an acute spike of pain through her. Leaning forward did nothing but make her dizzy. She felt like she had just gone through the Tilt-O-Whirl ten times in a row. Once her eyesight had adjusted she saw that, yes, she was sitting in a grassy area, though her eyes must still be having trouble with the light, because everything seemed too bright. She looked behind her and saw that she'd been laying on a rock. She picked it up and tossed in carelessly behind her.

It hit something and made an odd fwump sound. Slowly, she got up and realized it had hit another girl, lying on the grass about seven feet from her. She winced and hoped it hadn't hit anywhere important, like her skull.

When Angel came close enough she poked the young woman with the toe of her boot. A groan was what she received in response.

"Oh thank god she's still alive~! I just can't handle waking up next to a dead body. And where the hell am I? Hey miss, are you okay?"

Angel crouched down and began shaking the young woman. She noticed she was wearing a small pair of shorts, some kind of shirt with a cardigan over it. Definitely not cold weather clothes. She shook her again and she mumbled something so Angel shook her harder. She groaned and said in an irritable voice in what Angel thought was French, "Qu'est-ce qu'il y a? J'dors!"

The girl's name was Megan, and as usual, she was lazing about. While she couldn't quite understand why her pillow had become so hard, and where her covers had gone (did they fall off the side of her bed?), she was still half sleeping and not awake enough to care. However, her nose was tingling something awful, which was strange, since it only did that outside, where pollen made her nose go all runny. She also had a horrible kink in her neck, as if she had slept through the night in a very un-comfy position.

Someone said something. She didn't understand what, but she didn't recognize the voice as her father's, so it was probably one of her sisters coming to annoy her. She hoped it wasn't Carys, because the girl was the youngest and never seemed to get the hint that not everyone woke at six in the morning.

Stretching, Megan rolled over, one eye peeking open to - God, why was the sun shining so brightly?! Didn't it know some people were sleeping?! But that was when she realized she was not in her bedroom, and some strange girl (woman?) was next to her. Everything looked quite blurry, and she realized she wasn't wearing her glasses.

"T'es qui, toi? Où est ma putain d'chambre?!"

The only French Angel knew was, "Uhhhh...A-aucune français...seulement en Eng-um-...anglais. Yeah~" Angel hoped this girl didn't think she was stupid because she didn't know anything else useful. Just common French words and how to say cheese omelet from watching Dexter's Lab.

Megan stared at the taller girl. Was she a tourist or something? A lot of them came to Switzerland, so it didn't sound too strange. However, Megan's eyes must have been worse off than she thought, because the colours around her seemed too bright, not as they should be. She could swear she saw a dark outline around the girl, like in mangas. Rubbing her eyes, Megan tried to clear her view, to no avail.

"S'okay, I speak English. You a lost tourist or something?" Well, she was lost too, but she decided to ignore that. ...Hey, and where were her glasses?!

For a moment she was full of panic, but then she felt them underneath her tee-shirt, in her cleavage. They must have slipped down there while she was sleeping. Feeling a little self-conscious, she fished them out, hoping she didn't look like too much of a pervert, while the girl answered.

Angel, sighing in relief, said happily, "Oh thank god you speak English~ That was seriously the only helpful French I know. And no, I'm not a tourist. I have no idea where I am. I just woke up here next to you. I mean, it was crazy! I was just sitting there watching Teen Titans and then BAM! Here I am~" Her voice was quite deep, with a southern accent from America. Compared to it, you could hear Megan's was English, her voice at a higher pitch.

Megan looked at her as if she had just said something exceedingly strange, before slipping her glasses on.

"I'm Angel by the way~"

Quite a lot of info in one go, thought the short-haired girl. Most of what she retained was 'Teen Titans' and the girl's name.

"I'm Megan. Am I the only one seeing things weirdly? It looks all colourful, and it's as if there are less details. I think I might have damaged my eyes somehow."

Speaking of eyes - Putting on the glasses had stopped everything from being blurry, yet the bright colours remained, and the dark outlines were even more visible. She was in a park, of that she was sure, but everything was wrong. And not only her sight, but the temperature was colder than the scorching summer heat she was used to, and outside the park every building seemed unknown to her. With a sinking feeling in her gut, Megan slowly began to realize how serious the situation was.

Megan turned to look at the woman next to her. Angel, guessing what this was about, just shrugged.

"Are you seeing things all cartooney too? It's been like this since I woke up a bit ago. I was kinda hoping I was seeing things. Thought maybe I had a concussion or something~ Apparently not eh? And I have no idea where I am. I don't think I'm in Alabama anymore."

Angel bit her lip and felt the ball of dread from earlier settle into her stomach. If she weren't so easy going she'd have begun panicking.

"Alababa?" Megan mispronounced. "Is that a town or something? Because you're in Geneva..." She looked around. "Or at least, I was."

Well, shit. Now they were both clueless. The only thing that made her happy was the packet of chocolate almonds that was still with her. She picked it up and opened it, crossing her legs so that she was sitting more comfortably. Gosh, why didn't she have any shoes? Ah yes, she wasn't wearing any before coming here, wherever _here_ was.

Angel laughed loudly and said with an easy-going grin, "No, no~ Not Alababa. AlaBAMA~ Right smack dab between Mississippi and Georgia. And where's Genovia? Is that where you're from?" Megan again noticed the accent, but used to people of all sorts of nationalities, didn't think much of it.

"Geneva, as in, Swi-tzer-land," Megan pronounced slowly, as if talking to a child. "In Europe. Not... Mississippi." Her French accent shone through when pronouncing that last word, because she had never heard it pronounced in anything else than French in her life, since English wasn't her first language. "You mean," she said, realizing something was wrong with this situation. "You come from America? Then, if you come from there and I come from Europe... where the hell are we?!" She couldn't help the slight anger escaping.

Her vision was clear now, yet everything still looked like something out of an anime. She remembered that she had been holding her brother, incapable of even crawling, before waking up here. Oh God, where was he? Was he here too, or did something happen? The last vestiges of sleep were leaving her now, but still, nothing seemed to clear up in her head.

Angel had reared back at Megan's raising voice, and still looked faintly surprised. She held her hands up in a calming gesture.

"Now calm down~ Freaking out and yelling isn't going to get us anywhere," she said soothingly. "This reminds me of some of the shenanigans me and my friend Sara get into when we role play on fanfiction~"

Angel laughed lightly and Megan perked up a bit.

"Fanfiction! Cool, I'm an author on it. Though..." Megan deflated. "I guess without a computer I won't have access to it anytime soon. If I had known I'd appear in weirdy-land, I would've told the guys I have conversations with that I'd be gone."

She stood, uncomfortable with her bare feet on the ground. She had to move. Staying here wouldn't help them. They had to search for answers instead of expecting them.

"You know, this is like some of those self-insert things you see on fanfiction. Ever heard of them?"

Angel seemed to have a permanent grin on her face and hopped up and saw just how much taller she was than Megan. Being in heeled boots probably didn't help.

"Oh yeah~! I love those kinds of stories and I really love to RP them. I was RPing with a friend the other day and she invited her cousin to join us. Her cousin was very creative and fun to RP with but she had terrible grammar. She kept confusing 'then and than'. And 'we're, were, where'. I know she kept getting annoyed when I'd correct her but come on! Doesn't everyone think that's annoying? I know I do~"

Despite the situation, Megan couldn't help but grin.

"Yeah. I have this discussion with this author, and every time I'm angry at a mistake I see I report it back to her so we can rant. Her name is Burlesque Mistress. We met when I reviewed her Black Butler story. D'you like Black Butler?"

Angel gasped and her jaw practically hit the ground. Then she squealed happily and wrapped Megan in a big squeezy hug and yelled, "O-M-G! Moka?! Is this you?"

Megan totally didn't expect that, and let out an embarrassing squeal. While she was a very touchy-feely person and gave more hugs than she should, you couldn't expect her not to be creeped out by a stranger taking her in their arms.

"Gah! Leggo! I don't know you!"

Angel wasn't holding her that tight, so Megan managed to free herself, though she nearly lost her balance as she extirpated herself.

The taller woman wasn't so lucky, and stumbled back and tripped. She fell back, her head slamming into the ground. Whimpering, tears sprung to her eyes from the pain.

"What the heck Moka? I finally get to see you in person and to push me down?"

The woman rubbed the back of her head and found the beginnings of a nasty bump, as well as something wet. Blood.

"Ouch, sorry!" Megan said, feeling guilty. "It's just, you hugged me! I mean, you did that, and there's nothing wrong with hugs, but you just don't hug random strangers..." what was her name again? Gel? No, something else. Gosh, how embarrassing, she had forgotten it already. "...lady!"

She went over to inspect the wounded scalp. There was too much hair to see much, but it only looked like a surface wound. "Gee, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to push you."

Angel glared up at Megan or Moka or whatever she wished to be called and hissed, "I finally meet you outside of fanfiction and you hurt me? What kind of craziness are you? I thought you'd be excited to see old Mistress. I guess I was wrong."

Angel wiped the blood on her hand off on her dark jeans and looked to see what she tripped over. It was her remote. She picked it up and figured it was worthless wherever she was now. So it was tossed into the nearest bin angrily.

Megan's eyes widened. "Mistress? You mean, you're Mistress? The one I've had those super duper long conversations with?"

She hoped not. That would mean she just coldly rejected a very dear friend. Her stomach clenched in tension.

"Or are you Hanyou-Kyo?" That was possible too, though the girl only sent a message once a week.

"My username is Mistress, yes~" Angel said. She walked away and sat on a wooden park bench with a sigh.

Megan pursed her lips, her eyes widened insecurely. "Oh, Mistress! I'm soo soooo sorry! I didn't mean to! You have to understand, I wake up next to some stranger in a park, and then they hug me! I jumped to the wrong conclusion!" She opened up her arms in an invitation, grimacing as she remembered how she had pushed away the girl. "Can we try again?" Tentatively, she smiled, hoping the girl (her only ally in this strange place) wouldn't brush her off and leave.

The woman in question turned to assess her, secretly admitting she had a point. If a stranger had done that to her she might have been weirded out too. So she mirrored the girl's stance and said, "Fine. We can~ But you have to come hug me this time Moka."

Once again, Megan squealed. But this time it wasn't in horrified surprise. It was out of happiness, and excitement at seeing her friend for the first time.

Smiling, she embraced the young woman. Gel? No, it wasn't that. Sh*t, she couldn't remember her name. And it would seem really impolite to ask again, even if she had the memory of a goldfish. Well, until she remembered it would just have to be Mistress. "Again, I'm so sorry! Is your head okay?"

Angel shrugged. She pulled her hand back so the other girl could see the blood on her hand. "Don't think so~"

Megan winced. "Ouch, we should get some bandages for that, but first." She went over to the bin and said. "You can't throw out this remote here. For recycling you generally bring them back to the shop. And you'll need it if you go back home." She then rifled through the icky trash, trying to keep physical contact minimal, and retrieved the remote. "There!"

Angel made a grossed out face and said, "Ew~ That thing touched garbage, I don't care if it's cartoon garbage or not. Put it back."

Megan clenched it tightly, unknowingly pressed a few of its buttons. But since the TV to go with it wasn't there, it didn't really matter. She didn't notice how the surrounding sounds - the birds chirping, that cars driving past, the people talking in the distance - stopped suddenly.

She remembered Corinne scolding her every time she didn't throw something in the right bin, and the lesson had stuck. "But that's pollution! It needs to go to a special electronics bin or something." But still, there was a hint of a waver in her voice. Who cared where it went, when they had bigger priorities?

Angel stood up to tell her to just trash the useless thing, absently noting how everything seemed too quiet.

"It's my controller and if I want to throw it in that bin then that's my business. Now put it back. And why the hell is it so quiet? We weren't yelling that loud were we?"

Angel looked around and noticed nothing was moving. A few birds were trapped mid-air, wings spread, unmoving. She froze up.

"Okay something's wrong."

There wasn't any wind, or the slightest noise. Megan kept quiet, eyes darting left and right in an attempt to comprehend this.

"Come on," she said, walking over to a nearby couple who had been having a picnic.

They were still, the woman with her expression frozen in a joyful laugh, and the man with ketchup running down his sleeve, looking sheepish.

"What is this?" Megan asked. "It's like someone stopped time or something."

Angel got close and snapped her fingers in front of the couple's faces but they didn't move. Not even a flinch. She turned to Moka with a devious grin and said, "Hey~ Picnic couple. If you don't want to share your food with us then say something right now."

And predictably they said nothing. Snickering, she took the whole picnic basket and started rifling through it. She filched some sandwiches wrapped in plastic wrap, a couple apples, a few Debbie cakes, some chips, and two sodas before putting the bare basket back. She stuffed the new items into her messenger bag, grinning at Moka, before casually walking away.

"This is actually really cool. Let's go take more stuff!" Angel said with a laugh.

Megan looked at the couple anxiously, expecting them to react any minute.

They didn't.

Slowly, a grin filled with malice painted itself on her mouth, and she followed after her new friend. The remote lay forgotten on the ground as they left.

It was incredibly fun to take stuff, Megan discovered. She knew it was wrong, but she was really hungry, and her chocolate almonds weren't that filling. They went to a convenience store and Megan took a big backpack belonging to a frozen girl, she emptied it of its contents and started filling it up with whatever struck her fancy at the store. Everything still looked anime-ish, but she had learnt to ignore that, as well as how her own body looked now.

Angel practically danced around, taking whatever she wanted. She filled her messenger bag with goodies and non-carbonated drinks. She stole a pair of new headphones and threw the plastic wrapping away. She retrieved her mp3 player and hooked them in.

Seeing a girl wearing a very pretty necklace with an nice symbol on it, she stopped. Unable to resist, she went over and unhooked the clasp.

"Oh, I have to say, dearie," she said to the immobile girl she took it from. "This looks much better on me I'm afraid. I think I'm keeping it."

"That's a bit mean," said Megan, feeling a surge of pity. But then she said, not wanting to start a fight: "But it does look better on you." She gave Mistress a thumbs up. "The fashion police would agree."

The store didn't really have that many books, which was what Megan would have wanted to take. And electronics wouldn't serve her, since she didn't have an mp3 like her friend. Instead she raided what they had in makeup, taking the concealer that always cost her so much in Switzerland with a vengeance. She also stole a lot of nail polish, and eye-liners. Some blush came along into her bag as well, but she didn't filch much mascara - she always smudged her lids when she applied it on her lashes. She sucked at that.

There were some clothes, but not much. Megan didn't want to spend her time trying on trousers to know which she should steal. She also didn't want Mistress to get impatient and decide to leave her alone. So she just took a bright yellow sundress size Medium, with flowers stitched down on the left side, and some flip flops. She put on the shoes, happy to not be forced to walk around barefooted anymore, but kept the sundress in her arms, not wanting to strip in the store, even if Mistress was the only one really 'aware'.

A packet of chocolate brownies went into the backpack, but then it was too full - she could barely close it. So Megan said:

"Hey Mistress? I don't have any more space. How about we leave this place in case they wake up, and go eat the food somewhere else?"

"Oh sure~ But I have a little bit more room in my bag if you wanna put some of your stuff in there."

The two women walked from the store with a spring to their steps, a testament of how fun this had been for them. Angel opened her bag for something to snack on, but noticed another object in there, that shouldn't be there. She gasped inaudibly, surprised. She picked up a very familiar remote and said, "Didn't we throw this away?"

Megan blinked, and smirked. "I knew you'd see the light. Now we can throw it away where it should be!" Okay, so not a priority, but who cared? Megan was just proud Mistress had decided to keep it anyway, to recycle it.

"What are you talking-...ya know what? Sure~ And hey! Maybe we can sit across the street from an electronics store and mess with the tvs! This is a universal remote after all~" Angel laughed and started pressing buttons. When her finger came to the 'play' button and pushed it down, there was a burst of sound that nearly sent them jumping. Everything that had been unmoving seconds before had returned to normal. People, noises, smells, even the wind was back.

However, Megan couldn't understand what had triggered time to run its course again. Suspicious, she turned to the remote. "Mistress, press on the number one, please."

Angel looked at her oddly before complying. She pressed said button but nothing happened. She shrugged and said, "What about the power button?"

Megan, who had believed something would happen, said, "Yeah, try it if you want."

She didn't really care either way. She had thought the remote had somehow paused everything, and that pressing play was what had returned everything to how it was supposed to be, but apparently she was incorrect. If Mistress wanted to experiment, then Megan wouldn't stop her.

Angel carelessly pressed the power button. This time, something happened. The colours, the sounds of cars passing by and people talking, everything seemingly bled out of existence, leaving them in a dark void, incapable of feeling anything. Thankfully, she could still see Megan and herself, because if that hadn't been the case, she might have reacted quite violently.

"What the hell's going on here?"

Megan was completely frozen. Everything was pitch black around her, and it was neither cold nor warm. She couldn't smell anything and there wasn't the slightest wind.

In some strange way, it made sense. Before everything had stopped moving. Perhaps she had pressed something on the remote and now...

"I think it's the remote. Mistress, press power again, NOW."

What if they were stuck like this? She could already feel claustrophobia creeping in. It was a fear she had never really had, but in this environment she felt suffocated, trapped. What if they couldn't leave this place?!

Her breathing was becoming shallower by the second, and she could see things moving around in the darkness. Her hands were fruitlessly trying to grasp at something, and her eyes were tearing up in fear.

Angel fumbled with the remote, trying her best not to drop it. Who knew what would happen if it fell into this darkness. It could disappear forever. She did as told and sighed happily when everything materialised around them again, as if it had never left. Nothing out of the ordinary was going on, save for the whole cartoon thing, and how she could see everything with dark outlines.

She smiled and figured that if that button worked...why not others? She pressed pause and the surroundings froze again.

"Oh cool! My remote can pause people." She pressed play and everything went normal speed again. She frowned when she pressed fast forward and rewind. Nothing happened for either. "Well, that's a bit of a rip off."

Megan, who had been peeking, asked, "Can I try, please?" Her tone was pleading, and she gave her best puppy-dog look.

The woman thought it over and said rather reluctantly, "I...guess so. But don't break it. That's the only one we've got." And she handed it over to Megan.

The shorter girl cradled the remote, careful not to move it about too much. She tested a few buttons, but most didn't work, and the ones that did were pause and play. Megan didn't try power again - she was too afraid. She pressed on pause, and instead of pressing play, she pressed on the fast forward button. Now that last button didn't work on its own, but this time, everything advanced, but in slow-forward instead.

"Woah!"

Angel smiled and said, "That's actually pretty cool. I wonder if people can see us moving really, really fast? Maybe we both look like the Flash to them. That'd be pretty cool~ Ya gotta admit." Angel took the remote back and pressed play. She watched the people move passed them normally, happily.

Megan frowned.

"I was holding my little brother before I came here. Do you think he came with us? Or maybe he stayed at home - I hope my dad finds him fast, because I wouldn't want anything happening to him."

She bit her lip, contemplating the problem. They hadn´t seen him by the park - was he okay? Maybe he really was still in Geneva.

Angel thought about it and knew no baby or small child could stay quiet while in an unfamiliar place, much less outside for so long in the elements.

"I didn't see a kid with you after I woke up. Could he have gotten up and walked away? How old is he?"

"He was born last December," Megan said. "He can sort of crawl, but after a few _centimètres_ he'll start crying for attention. That's proof this isn't a crazy dream - he would've woken me up if it was."

She brushed a hand through her short brown hair, ridding herself of the few tangles there. The sky was darkening, and there were less and less people there.

"I think we should find somewhere to sleep. I'm not that tired, but I don't want to be outside in the dark. D'you know where we could go?"

Angel looked around the area and saw that the bustling parts of the city were starting to light up colourfully. She readjusted her bag and said, "Well considering I've only been in this city around a few hours I have to say no. But I don't think it will be too hard for us to find a place to crash, ya know?"

Megan had to agree with that. "How about we separate? You go in that direction," she pointed towards an area full of shopping centres. "And I can go there," she indicated towards a more industrial area. "One of us has the remote. We leave it on pause, and when a bit of time has passed the person unpauses. That'll mean we have to come back here and share what we found."

It sounded like a good plan to her.

"I just don't know where to put our bags - I don't want to carry them around."

Angel nodded and looked down at her bag. It wasn't really bothering her. She was so used to carrying heavy things around. From kids, to groceries, to general labor. It was all the same to her. So she smiled at Megan and said, "I can keep on carrying mine, it's no problem. And if you don't feel like carrying yours then I can carry it if you want. We don't want to risk someone picking it up and taking it."

She thought splitting up would help them cover more ground and said so. "And I like your plan, we'll find somewhere to sleep faster. I'll go try and find somewhere to stay while in the city area. How long until we meet back up? And you don't have a watch to tell time, do you? I've got my phone for that."

Megan winced. "The problem is, when in pause everything stops, even a phone. It wouldn't do me much good. How about, when you find something you unpause the remote. If you don't find anything and too much time passes by, you unpause it anyway." She looked at her surroundings, and, seeing a really tall distinctive white building a bit further away, pointed at it and said. "That's our meeting point. You see that building? It should be visible from nearly anywhere nearby."

Angel looked up at the building Megan pointed out and said, "Dang, you're right. So we'll meet at that building after a while. And be careful, just because things are paused doesn't mean you're safe. You could accidentally hurt yourself and nobody would be able to help you because they're… well, paused. Now do you want me to carry your stuff or..."

The dark haired woman pointed at the bag Megan was carrying and then pointed to her back.

Megan looked down at her bag. "Wait a sec, please."

And out came a pen and a notebook. She handed them to Mistress and said, "Write down where you go, left turn, right turn, all that stuff. Then if you get lost, it'll be easier to come back. I'll do the same."

She let her bag hand back down, and caught sight of the stolen flip flops on her feet. They were in American size, which probably meant that Mistress was still on her home continent, and Megan was the one that had moved.

She tried not to think of the implications of waking up on another continent with no idea how. And then she thought of how everything looked like something out of an anime, and that was enough to remind her of a very specific brand of fanfiction. Luckily, she wasn't called Mary, or Sue, or both.

"I'll just carry my own bag - you've already a lot in your hands. I'm not a wimp." She smiled. "I'll deal."

Angel chuckled and replied in a friendly tone, "Yeah~ Okay, didn't mean to offend ya. And I'll keep track of where I go and all." But then Angel's expression became serious. "Be careful. If you get hurt while time is stopped then you're screwed."

"Relax. I get it, we're in some kind of effed up anime-style town, anything could happen!" There was a certain amount of sarcasm to Megan's tone that was difficult to dismiss.

She waved at Mistress as she began walking in the direction where she would look for a temporary place to stay for them. "Press pause, and I'll go now! Unpause in two hours or so - estimate how the time passes. If you find something before, unpause then and I'll come back."

Angel waved.

"Okay, see you when I see you~" Then she turned and started walking towards the more busy areas. She looked here and there before rummaging in her messenger bag, retrieving the remote and pressing pause. Afterwards, it went back to its rightful place.

She wrote down carefully where she was going, as well as street names, and prominent land marks. She dodged unmoving people left and right and even picked up a new bag (backpack this time) because she saw so many cute and awesome things she wanted to 'pick up'.

As she was looking at a cute octopus keychain she happened to glance up and saw a giant jumbotron tv on a building. Its screen was frozen on an ad for...Bacon-Flavored Gum? She stared at the chibi pig holding the stick of gum before bursting into peals of laughter.

"Hahahahahahaha~! Oh god! That's hilarious! And it's called Bacgum? Oh god, I have to find some and try it."

She laughed and pocketed the octopus keychain. Accidently, Angel bumped into a person and knocked them over. She gasped, imagining how much that must've hurt. With effort, she managed to get him in a sitting position and with a grunt, propped him up to his feet.

"T-there we go mister. Good as new. I just hope your face doesn't hurt."

-x-x-x-

Meanwhile, Megan was walking towards the industrial area she had chosen look at for shelter. It was full of warehouses, parkings, with a few restaurants and similar stuff. She saw a few places that seemed good for the night, but none of them would be adequate in case it began to rain. She shivered. This place seemed so real and so like the stuff you saw on DisneyXD or Cartoon Network, just before a villain popped out. She didn't think that would happen, of course, but she still sped up to walk closer to a group of girls holding various shopping bags, afraid of anything that could potentially happen.

She pulled out a chocolate bar and began munching on it, looking left and right for a place to sleep.

Without much to do, she simply noted down where she had gone, writing 'left (big trash can full of food) - right (building with smiling face on) right (chattering girls that broke my nose)'. Satisfied, she continued walking until she ended up near the docks of this city (or was it a town?).

There was a big bridge in the distance. Maybe that meant she was in San Francisco or something? Was that even how the name was written?

Megan frowned. "Fransisco - Francisco..." Huh. Without google or a dictionary, she would have to try and guess it herself.

Whistling merrily to herself, she continued onward, towards an area that looked more lived-in.

-x-x-x-

In the city Angel finally found some of the bacon flavoured gum. She tried some, humming in delight when she found it to her liking.

"This is actually pretty good. Kind of tastes like sugar coated bacon. I'll have to get Megan to try some."

She chewed it and continued on walking as well as writing down street names and so on. She stopped and grabbed some food from a weird fast food joint she'd never heard of before. It was called the Burgers Drive In. She felt like she'd heard of it before but couldn't put her finger on where. Unable to resist, she unpaused to order a really tasty burger and fries.

She had been gone quite some time, and hadn't found anywhere to sleep. She wasn't ready to spend the night on the streets like a hobo, so she would have to go back to Megan and see how things had evolved.

Megan was raiding the cupboards of a nice house when time regained its original course. She felt a cold sweat down her back, realizing with a sinking feeling in her stomach that that meant someone could catch her robbing their kitchen. Quickly, she stuffed everything in her bag and went back to the open window she had used to come in, trying to be discreet so that the occupants of the house wouldn't hear her.

"Who are you?"

Great, she thought, turning around. She had been discovered.

"Uh, nobody?"

It happened too quickly for her to react. She tried to scream, but she couldn't. She was clawing at the thick hands of the one who was now choking her to death, desperate for air.

It was an insect. A bizarre, humanish insect THING was attacking her! Big, with eyes completely black, no way to discern iris from cornea, there were two antennae, a face full of something resembling fur...

"F*ckin' leave..." she struggled out. "ME. ALONE!" She pushed him off her and ran, leaving her bag full of stolen food and stuff from her earlier shopping spree with Mistress.

The front door was locked, and she could hear the giant bipedal insect thundering after her. Desperate, she took the stairs upwards, to the first level.

"DAAAAAAADDYYYYYY!" came a hysterical scream from upstairs.

Megan stopped her ascension midway to block her ears, gritting her teeth at the headache-inducing volume. Unfortunately, the giant insect was used to such sounds and was thus unfazed. So he managed to catch up with Megan and his fingers reclaimed what they surely thought was their rightful place; curled around her neck.

Once again, she found herself gasping for breath as the monster shouted, "What?!"

The thing walked up the rest of the stairs and turned down into a corridor, opening a door to the left, all the while carrying the weight of the intruder that was Megan. Immediately, our protagonist's eyes were assaulted with a wave of pink, and in the middle of it, on a queen-sized bed, wearing only her underwear, a blonde girl was looking on in despair at the clothes strewn everywhere.

"Nothing looks good, daddy! I have a date first thing tomorrow and none. Of. My. Clothes. Look. NICE!"

Megan just whimpered.

"But, sweetie, you have tons of clothes! Look at this one - it's a very pretty dress, see?" the monster said, holding up said garment.

The blonde girl turned around, her expression somewhere between a sneer and something expressing utter disdain. "I bought that one three months ago! It isn't fashionable anymore! Daddy, I need-" she stopped talking when she saw Megan, and her sneer became a gigantic smile.

"Oh! Em! Gee! I was about to say I wanted to go shopping, but you've already thought about the problem! You brought another girl to give me advice!"

The thing holding Megan tilted its head to the side. "I did?"

Not very bright, that one, thought Megan.

The light haired girl strode forward with purpose and snatched the very blue Megan out of the monster's claws with a strength that had nothing to do with her deceptive diminutive form. "Thanks daddy!"

And then she slammed the door shut in his face.

It was incredibly relieving for Megan, however, just a few minutes later, she was already regretting being left with the girl.

"... and he was like, "We should go out sometime. I know this great place with a fantastic view." And I told him, "How about next Saturday?" And he said yes! But I don't have anything remotely good for this, and I have to look my best for Fang," Kitten cooed, her gaze faraway.

Megan was sitting very straight on the girl's bed, afraid to move a muscle. Her legs were clamped together and her arms were crossed in a very defensive gesture. "Hey... Kitten, was it?"

The girl turned. "Yeah...?"

Swallowing, Megan asked, "Your dad, what's his name?"

Kitten frowned cutely and smoothed out her pink skirt. "Why d'you wanna know? It's boring anyway. His name is Drury, Drury Walker. But since he looks like that he's been calling himself 'Killer Moth'," she said, even doing the air quotes with her fingers.

There was an almost imperceptible tremble in the brown-haired girl's body as she said, in a unusually subdued manner for herself. "Ah. I thought so."

-x-x-x-

Angel was walking alongside Lincoln street when she heard someone cough loudly. She turned and saw a worker at a newsstand, a blonde boy, staring at her. He was also blushing.

Angel smiled at him.

Not shy in the least, she went over to him and asked, "You wanted something~?" in a sweet voice that she often used to flirt.

His hands began shaking and he opened his mouth to say something when another boy, brunet this time, came up behind him and grinned at Angel.

"Hey Charlie boy!" he said, slinging an arm around said boy. "Who's the babe and why's she talking to you?"

He lost any respect he could have potentially gained from Angel.

She didn't like him. He wasted no time in saying his name was Kevin, and it wasn't hard to see he was rude and extremely obnoxious. He barely let Charles speak one sentence most of the time, and seemed used to attracting girls. But seeing as he, like everyone else here, looked like a cartoon, his handsome features didn't leave their desired effect. It was a bit hard for an adult woman to crush on a moving drawing (even if she looked like one herself).

Pitying the poor oppressed Charles, she decided to do him a kindness.

"You're pretty cute. You know that~?"

Angel thought Charles was going to faint he turned so red. And Kevin looked stunned. She laughed at their faces, and her attention was caught by the cover picture of one of the newspapers. It wasn't hard to recognize the group in it.

"Is that who I think it is?" she asked, picking up the paper.

"Y-yeah, those are the teen Titans. They protect Jump City from weirdoes," Charles said meekly, still red from the earlier compliment.

Angel nodded, expecting that.

"That's so cool."

Her tone didn't convey the same thing.

"My friend loves these guys," she said, snapping a photo with her phone. She did it discreetly, unaware if this phone model even existed here. "I'm gonna show her this."

She pretended to look at the time on her phone and gasped, a tad dramatically to ensure it worked.

"Oh wow. I was supposed to meet her right now. It was nice talking to you Charles~ Maybe we could call each other some other time. You could show me more of Jump City~"

Charles lit up and Angel revelled in the way Kevin frowned jealously. The happy blonde scrambled to find write his number down, and they parted on happy terms.

The woman went as far as to wink at them before heading back to the tall white building she had to meet her friend at. She hoped Megan had found a place to sleep for the night. But she supposed that if worse came to worse they could 'liberate' some money from a few people and book a hotel room. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

After nearly thirty minutes, Angel huffed. It felt like she hadn't gotten any closer to the darned meeting point. She drunk some black tea from a bottle in her bag, and once hydrated the long haired woman pulled out her mp3 and put the buds in her ears and turned it on. She started bobbing her head to the music as she walked, keeping an eye out for the streets she had written down as the ones she had passed knew it felt like she'd made no progress but in reality she only had about ten more minutes of walking before she got to the tall white building Megan and her had agreed to meet at.

When the white building finally came into view, Angel was just bone-tired. Unable to walk any more, she slumped against the cement wall surrounding the perimeter of the property. She practically chugged down what was left of her cold tea. Her heartbeat regained its usual pace a few minutes later."Hey Megan~! Are you around here?" she whisper-yelled, pushing herself up to gaze around.

There was no sign of her friend anywhere. Under the assumption her friend hadn't arrived yet, Angel sat on the stone wall and decided to wait.

She was perfectly fine with that, but forty minutes later, she was becoming steadily more and more nervous. She didn't know if Megan was even alright.

The short haired girl could have hurt herself or been attacked by some crazy monster. This was Teen Titans after all. They were literally all over the place. She could be in trouble at that very moment.

Debating for a good five minutes on what course of action she was to take, in the end, she decided to do the only thing that made sense.

"To hell with it!" She pressed pause.

The chilly wind disappeared.

"I hope I did the right thing."

-x-x-x-

Megan felt like screaming. This was a nightmare. A terrible, terrible nightmare. She should never have entered that house - it was a mistake on her part. She deeply regretted it and wished Mistress hadn't pressed play when she did, because that had gotten her caught and had cut off any escape route.

She had recognized the blonde girl, of course, and her father. She remembered the show she had been watching just before appearing in the strange, cartoonish park she had woken to, and felt silly for not connecting the dots earlier.

Please oh please oh please, she thought, while nodding at appropriate moments to Kitten's monologue. She didn't want to be stuck here, she wanted to be back with Mistress.

Tears gathered, and she thought of Ellis, her little brother. She had been holding him just before coming to this strange world. But this place wasn't unknown to her. She recognized the villains, and how they were drawn. She knew where she was.

... akin to a self-insert, Mistress and her were in the cartoon 'Teen Titans'.

She was inches away from throwing herself out of a window to escape Kitten and her pinkiness when the miracle happened.

Everything... stopped.

_Mistress had pressed pause!_

Megan stayed as she was for a few seconds, before admitting to herself that Mistress must have realized something had happened and was trying to help her. She didn't know how long she had before time resumed its flow, so she ran downstairs, passing by the kitchen to retrieve her bag, and left through the still-open window.

Once outside, she ran.

Through the neighbouring area, over to the docks and through the more industrial zone, she ran until she was out of breath, panting like a dog.

Twenty to thirty minutes after her escape, the familiar white building where she had set the meeting point was in view. Her breath was quite audible in the silence of the frozen surroundings, so it really wasn't a surprise that Mistress hear her before she saw her.

Megan was dripping sweat and was breathing rather heavily. Angel didn't care, though. Her friend was safe and that was all that mattered. So without thinking, the taller woman ran up and hugged the tired teenager, rambling happily."Oh my god Megan! I was so freaking worried about you! I thought maybe you'd gotten hurt or maybe been attacked because in this city it's very likely. And you won't believe what I found out today! I was talking with this really cute newsstand boy and his annoying friend and I totally saw five VERY familiar characters on the front page. You won't guess who!"

Megan didn't really care what movie star Mistress had seen. She was just so relieved to see a familiar face that she grabbed the girl tightly and burst into loud, hysterical sobs. She usually never cried in front of people she knew so little (though she had been talking to Mistress on ffnet for what, a year? Two?). But all this was too much.

Being physically attacked by a giant insect, knowing that she had a phobia of insects and spiders, was horrible. But recognizing him from a TV show? Whatever Mistress had seen on the front page, it couldn't compare to being traumatized like that.

Angel, as to her, was shocked at the reaction. She held the girl and let her cry on her shoulder.

The poor girl needed it, so Angel rubbed her back and said soft soothing things that didn't really mean anything. Just trying her best to get her to calm down.

"Oh hun~ What's the matter? What happened? Are you okay? Everything's okay now. We're paused. Nothing can happen to us now."

Angel wasn't sure how long they stood there but she knew her back was beginning to hurt from standing in the same position for so long.

After a while, Megan composed herself and stepped back, slightly embarrassed, her chestnut coloured hair wet from the tears. She wiped away the wet tracks underneath her eyes. "I'm really sorry. When I was looking for a place to crash... well, I kinda broke into someone's home... and you unpaused before I left."

She could feel a headache coming up. She always had them after crying, which was enough incentive not to. But she had to explain this to Mistress, because the girl had to be informed about where they were. Megan couldn't even begin to imagine what this could mean. She remembered all the self-inserts she had read – Naruto ones, mostly. She had hated those who were exactly like in canon, but basically just with an added character. The dialogues were always the same, and she especially hated stories with Team Seven having four members instead of three, like any normal team. That just proved the lack of imagination coming from some people. A few stories were good, and deviated in interesting and stimulating ways, but they were rare.

However, she couldn't remember reading a Teen Titan self-insert. She wasn't sure if there were any. This was basically uncharted territory, and she didn't have story lines she could follow, like if she had been in Naruto. Had she been there, she would have had a better notion of what to do.

Here? She wasn't needed. The Titans didn't lose, and they didn't need help from her or from Mistress. But she could imagine that the mere fact that the two of them were here was already changing things, and that meant she had to at least ensure the heroes continued beating the baddies, like they were supposed to, to avoid any inconvenient butterfly effect.

"Yeah I suppose taking all this new stuff in would over stimulate some people into having a freak out. But I gotta tell you what I saw! Here, I'll just show you instead~" Angel said, smiling kindly.

The brunette took the remote and her phone out and quickly pressed play before flipping her phone open and scrolling through her pictures before she found the one she wanted. She turned her phone around and held it up to Moka's face so she could see the picture of the newspaper she'd seen.

"See them? They're real here! Can you believe that?! We're in the freaking TEEN TITANS city! This is JUMP CITY Moka! Oh my god this is so cool!"

Megan frowned. "Mistress, did you listen to what I just said? I was caught inside someone's home. And, since you know about where we are already, let me cut straight to the chase: It was the home of. F*cking. Killer. Moth. You know, the one who created Silkie? Big bad daddy of bitchy little Kitten? He effing attacked me and then sent me as personal playmate of the little pink blondie!"

She breathed in and out harshly. She couldn't believe how Mistress was reacting.

Angel smiled and it looked a bit...devious. Downright villainous some would say. She held up her universal remote and said with near unrestrained glee:

"Moka~ You're not thinking about the upperhand we have. We have a remote that can STOP TIME. We have literally nothing to worry about. So relax~"

Megan pursed her lips, still unhappy. She was the one that had been traumatized! Well, not really. Seeing so many gory movies had made her able to cope and move on incredible fast. But Mistress was brushing off the whole thing! Time for a change of subject before she became angry. Or, in this case, angrier.

"Where are we sleeping? It's night and we don't have anything!"

Mistress glared down at the smaller girl.

"No need to be bratty because you got caught. And I decided, if neither of us could find somewhere safe, then we'd just steal some money off a couple bystanders and get a hotel~ If that's okay with you that is~"

Mistress knew Moka had been scared when she got caught by Killer Moth but she was fine now. She didn't have a scratch on her that the woman could see. And whining and bitching about it when you were fine just made you look like a wimp. They were in a whole new world with danger lurking around every corner, so Moka had better toughen up really fast.

The girl in question looked disbelieving, thinking Angel seemed a tad too accepting of the situation.

"Doesn't it even freak you out a little that we've been dropped into a cartoon?!" An amusing thought came to Moka, and she asked: "Do you think that if people watch the show in the real world, we'll appear in it?" She could imagine her sister, Rikke, freaking out.

The shapely woman shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. And yes, this does kinda freak me out. But I refuse to allow my shock and fear to rule me and what I do in reaction to things. I'm better than that, and I'm clever enough to make all this work out to favour me. Now come on. We have to find a hotel before it gets any darker."

Moka didn't say anything, she just followed behind Angel as the taller woman led them back into the city. Once in a nicer section of the city, Angel used the remote to pause everything.

The teenage girl didn't look as her friend unashamedly stole from anyone she could find, mostly men in suits but also a few women dressed in fine dresses. Almost three hundred dollars were collected before they went back to the more bustling part of the city and started searching for a hotel.

Megan saw a nice, but still cheap looking hotel, and steered them towards it. It was a four-story building made of red bricks, with the name 'The Navigator' written in big letters that were a Times New Roman style.

"How long will we stay in a hotel? Because I still feel bad taking that much money from people."

Mistress led Moka into the nicely decorated building.

"Oh don't worry~ Those people were all ridiculously rich. That was chump change to them. I seriously doubt they'll even miss it. And we might have to keep doing this so you might want to get used to it. If this world is anything like our own then we're in trouble job wise. We'd need IDs and our social security cards to even think of getting an honest job. So for now this is our only alternative." It was all said softly, to ensure they weren't overheard.

Mistress walked up to the man behind the counter and smiled kindly.

"What kind of rooms are available, sir?"

The man grinned and said they had a single, a double, a connected, and a honeymoon available. He didn't even ask their age, or anything.

"Hey do you want to get the double or the connected rooms?" asked Mistress.

Megan smirked. "Why honey, you don't want the honeymoon one? I'm so offended..." And then she just couldn't hold any longer and started laughing. Really, it was funny that the man had even proposed such a room.

Mistress snorted.

"We'll just take the connected rooms, thanks," she told the receptionist.

The guy chuckled and fished two keycards out of a drawer. He handed them to Mistress and informed the women that the rooms were $30 a night and their own were on the first floor.

"Man I'm tired as hell," Mistress said, once in the elevator.

"You know, stuff is incredibly cheap here. Back in Switzerland, it's generally a hundred for the night, or more depending on how many stars the place has."

Their rooms were number 14 and 15, on the first level. The walls were white, with a few decorations here and there. Each room had a nice, cream coloured bed. Megan entered room 14 and placed the big bag on the bed, and sat down on the floor.

Meanwhile, Mistress trudged into her room, setting the bags down, and let herself sink down into her mattress, exhausted by the sheer incredulity of what had happened today. She was so tired of everything that had happened, and hoped nothing too odd was yet to come while they were stuck here, but that might just be a pipe dream considering exactly where they were. She wished Moka and herself would survive the events that would undoubtedly be thrown at them.

"We could be stuck here forever," Mistress murmured to herself.

She rolled on her side and stared at the bags next to her. Sitting up, a quick scan of the room revealed a mini-fridge next to the small TV.

She began sorting the various elements in her bags and made neat little piles. One was for the little knick-knacks she'd collected that day, another for the electronics she'd snagged, the third for the clothes she'd found that were actually her size, and a last pile for non-perishable foods like bags of cookies and chips. The foods that needed to be kept cool were placed in the small fridge.

Yawning, Mistress set everything on the desk. She stripped down to her underwear, turned the lights off, and slid under the covers.

As she drifted off, she hoped that things would turn out well for her and Moka.

-x-x-x-

Two weeks later found Megan eagerly pressing the pause button, standing next to Mistress. They were in front of a large bookstore, and were about to take as much reading material as possible. Usually she would have paid for it, but they were low on cash and she needed to pay the hotel rooms today for another week. Everything came to a stop, except for the two girls, and they entered the enormous bookstore, opening the large duffle bags they had brought along.

Megan snatched a pair of sunglasses off an unsuspecting guy's nose and put them on, grinning.

Mistress watched as Moka went through the bookstore in amusement. She went to the manga and graphic novel section first and grabbed anything that caught her eye. Then she went and looted the art book section, then the audio one, and finally the coffee shop built into the book store. She took a handful of money from the tip jar before stuffing it in her pocket.

"Well I might as well get some goodies while I'm here," she said.

True to her word, she went behind the counter and found a nice to-go box. She filled it with pastries and candies from the glass box. The barista behind the counter had been in the process of handing two mocha frappachinos to a snooty looking couple, so she took delight in deftly opening the woman's fingers and taking them for herself.

"Hey Moka! Where are you? I'm ready to go now! Come on~"

Megan had been going through a section dedicated to sci-fi litterature. She had already taken a long look at the action or romance-y books they had, and had shamelessly snagged mangas. The shape of them in America differed vastly from what she was used to in Europe, and she kept fingering them, entranced by the odd shape. When Mistress called, she had to force herself to leave, but consoled herself with the knowledge that they could be back anytime.

"Coming!"

Mistress had her bags so full it was surprising that the contents didn't fall out. But what really caught Megan's eye were the patisseries her friend was holding.

"Gosh, is that a chocolate muffin? Can I have some? Pwease?" she begged, pushing out her lower lip in a rather dramatic and cute way.

Mistress rolled her eyes at her friend's antics and replied in a mock hesitant tone, "Weeeeell~ I guess I could part with one of them. But just this once~"

The speed with which Moka took hold of the chocolaty treat had her laughing. She held out one of the drinks from the barista.

"Do you want one?"

Megan winced. "Sorry, I don't drink tea or coffee. I'm still a kid that way - I don't like the taste." She watched the cup curiously. "And isn't it weird - when time stops heat and cold stop moving. So that coffee wouldn't even be warm until we unpause again." She took a huge bite out of the muffin, and moaned at the taste. With half of it still in her mouth, she said, "C'mon. Let's go outside so you can enjoy your drink."

Mistress shrugged and followed after her partner in crime.

"But this drink wasn't hot in the first place. It's cold. Whatever. What do you want to do next? Go back to the hotel? Or...?"

She let the question hang in the air, sipping some of her drink.

She grabbed a square of fudge, and popped it in her mouth. "Oh my god~ That place has good fudge. And have you noticed the food in this world is either really good or tastes like ass? Maybe it's just me. There seems to be no middle ground. Eh~ Whatevs~"

Once they were just outside the shop and had passed those pesky detectors designed to stop thieves, Megan pressed play and everything went back to normal. A nearby person gawked at them, because it had looked as if they had just appeared out of thin air. As always, Megan ignored the person utterly, like every other. They always convinced themselves it was just in their head anyway, and even if they told someone, they wouldn't be believed.

"I vote we go visit that news-stand boy of yours, the one that totally had the hots for you. Then I can meet him and give him the whole 'if you hurt her I'll kill you' speech."

Mistress snorted and said in a blasé voice, "Oh please~ He's too meek and sweet to do anything hateful. His friend Kevin though is a total ass."

They walked down the busy sidewalk, skilfully weaving between amassed crowds of people. After an estimated time of fifteen minutes, they stopped walking and Mistress pointed to a green building down the way. She announced that right next to it was the news stand where she had met the cute blonde named Charles.

"But don't be too disappointed. He might not even be working today. Could be his day off for all we know. Ugh I hope Kevin isn't there."

Megan looked over at the stand, and only saw a woman there. "It seems to me like it's his day off." The bags were beginning to weigh her down, so she decided it was time to go. "How about we go to the park where we first showed up? Then we can eat the food there and read a bit."

It seemed like a good idea to her, and she didn't want to go back to the hotel room, because it was beginning to become a little too cluttered to her liking. The first night had been okay - but then she had discovered her trusty usb key in her shorts' pocket, and had been dismayed to realize that she had never managed to upload the latest chapter of the fic she had been writing. Other than that, there wasn't much interesting stuff on the key, just a few pics and some music.

Technology also made her want to weep. Everything was so old, and the phones here weren't even tactile yet! The computers were ugly, big things! And to think, Cyborg of the Teen Titans had prosthetic limbs - just giving the secret of their fabrication could help improve the world as a whole. And their communicators were like a portable version of Skype! Baddies and Goodies alike had great technology, but didn't share that with the normal folk, and Megan was stuck with slow computers in the internet café!

"Yeah lets go to the park~ And maybe we can talk about us getting our own place. What do ya say?" she asked with a smile.

Megan felt a smile slowly creeping onto her face. "How did you know?"

The woman had known immediately she wanted to change hotels. Seriously, Sometimes Moka thought her a mind-reader.

She had had a lot of friends in her life. Not that many compared to some, but quite many according to her. Mostly they had been false friends, and she had been too gullible to notice. It had only bee these last two years that she had begun forging real bonds. And yet, after spending just two weeks in the constant company of Mistress, the latter had started reading her like an open book. Megan liked the fact that she didn't have to voice a complaint, that Mistress noticed these things so easily when Megan was so bad at reading people when it counted and then seeing through others when it didn't.

Mistress smiled in return to the small one blossoming on Moka's face.

"Eh you just look so blue every time we go back to the hotel. I figured maybe a change in scenery will perk you right back up~!"

Before long, they reached the very same park they had appeared in when they had first arrived in this odd cartooned world.

It was big and green, and there weren't many trees, but their size made up for it and provided a lot of shade. They sat down on a shady spot near a big oak tree and discussed where they could go.

"I mean, no offense, but the place is getting too small. We're taking a lot of stuff, and we need more space. And renting an apartment is impossible, 'cause we'd need IDs. A bigger hotel is a possibility, but I don't want to go home to a fancy palace every day with snobby people looking down at me like I'm some sort of monster," Megan said.

Mistress scrunched her nose up and said, "Yeah, I hate people like that. Hmmm~ Why don't we just save some cash up and buy a loft or a building of our own and refurnish and fix it up and make it our own? Kind of like our own Titan Tower?"

She grinned, thinking that that idea sounded really cool and a heck of a lot of fun. "Yeah~ We'll have everything!" She could already imagine it

Megan frowned. "Hellooo... we kinda need ID for that. I propose we pay someone to do it for us, so he could be our front. You know, a guy from here who wouldn't ask too many questions if we have money."

"You don't need an ID if you pay in cash silly~ If you use cash and pay it all up front you don't need anything."

Unconvinced, Megan asked, "Are you sure? It's not that easy in Europe, and I don't know if it _will_ be, here."

And how did one do that anyway? Go buy a house, she meant. Megan had never done something like that, and was feeling frightfully small and useless.

Knowing that the shadier the area the easier it would be to buy a place, Mistress didn't understand why there would be any trouble. She wondered how difficult things were in Europe when you wanted your own place.

"Well Moka~ It depends on the area you want to buy a place from. The...less reputable the area the more lenient they are about who buys it."

Now, sometimes Megan could be a little innocent, but she knew what those places were like. "But if we buy something there, won't it be counterproductive? We could get robbed or something in a place like that! And I like to be in a place where I feel safe."

Mistress fished another piece of fudge from the box.

"If you think about it you're likely to be robbed anywhere. But maybe we can work something out. I just don't feel comfortable having a proxy. They could double cross us at any moment. But...maybe we won't have a choice. Or maybe we can buy the whole top floor of an apartment building~? Huh~ We'll figure it out sooner or later I suppose."

She took a bite and looked over to her friend and partner in crime. Then Mistress had an amazing thought, "Let's rob a bank. Think about it, we could do it."


	2. Titans, go!

**Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, and Teen Titans and everything that might be recognizable belongs to their respective authors.**

A/N:

**Moka:** _Updaaaaatee time! As promised, once a month! I'm already editing the third chapter. I hope you like this one, it was super annoying to correct and go through stuff we've already written AAAGGGGES ago. Shout out to Mistress, who was a great friend to me, 'cause recently my best friend seems not to care about hurting my feelings at all. Luckily, Missy was there to help me through it, and realize that some things just aren't worth fighting for, if it's to be betrayed. :C_

_And finally, the Titans! Though it's a bit after the middle of the chapter._

-x-x-x-

Megan blinked. "Rob a bank? C'mon Mistress, you can't be seri-" she looked at the woman's face. "Oh, you're actually serious."

The other one laughed so hard she almost spilled her drink. It took a bit of effort, but she managed to settle down enough to try to convince Moka of the validity of her idea.

"Think about it! We're the only ones who could get away with it! We just pause everything when they have the vault open and then we go in and take all we can!"

"But we'd have to see _when_ the vault is open, and that implies being in front of it to _see_ it being opened. And we can't go _down_ to the vaults, to the best of my knowledge. No one's allowed there. We can stop time – not turn ourselves invisible."

Seriously, why did Mistress want to rob a bank? Moka thought. They had all the money they needed in people's pockets, on the street.

Mistress huffed, unhappy her friend was trying to poke holes in her plan and ruin her fun. She just wanted to pull a big heist and not have to worry about money.

"Listen: all banks have a time of the month when they have to do inventory of their big vaults. So those vaults will be open for us at some point~"

"Yeah, but when?" Megan asked, her tone full of bite. She clearly didn't want to lose time talking about an idea she had already deemed faulty. She finished off the last of her muffin at a brisk pace, feeling the need to be up and about. "I don't know when they're open, and I don't really think that info is accessible to just anyone, Missy-Miss."

But this was the Teen Titans world. Couldn't they just act like regular villains by going in a bank with guns blazing, ordering a cashier to put money in their bag, and then leave? Probably not. Those ones where always caught by the resident heroes.

Mistress pursed her lips and said sadly, "Yeah~ Darn. I guess that's a big hole in my plans." She sighed.

There was a moment of silence, before a thought struck her.

"Oh my god, Moka! Do you wanna become official villains?! I bet we'd be a great duo!" She grinned hugely and bounced a bit out of the excitement of it all.

"It could be fun," Megan said. "But I'd rather do harmless fun than real villainy, 'cause the baddies always lose and the thought of being on the bad side of the Titans makes the fangirl in me wilt and die. If we're more like pranksters, we'd be tolerated." She smiled. "We could totally mess with the plot! I've been looking at newspapers, and I think we're just before the show starts, because there is NO mention whatsoever of the villains we know."

Clapping her hands childishly, Mistress let Moka's idea take hold. "Oh my gosh YES! I wouldn't really want to be a truly evil villain anyways. I'm more into having fun than truly hurting people. But if we did do this then what would our villain alliases be?"

It was strange, Moka thought, that she still wasn't used to the Southern accent of her friend. It had something intimidating to it, and if it weren't for the body-language, the tone of the voice would have her thinking the woman had to few emotions. But then again, she sucked at reading people.

"Well," began Moka. "We could be the... the fangirls! I know we're not really fangirls, but that's basically what an insert is, right? But as for the individual names we'd have, I have no idea—"

"Oh please~ Let's not call each other 'fangirls'," said Mistress, interrupting her friend. "It sounds so...nerdy. And when you say fangirl it reminds me of that one geeky villain from this show, remember? Control Freak? He was so...ugh, just lame. Can we please think of something else to call each other? Something like...I don't know...The Twisted Sisters~ It may be a band in our world but they probably don't have it here."

Mistress chewed on her gooey piece of fudge and took a sip of her drink. It made the food in her mouth turn more liquid-like, and despite the weird substance, the taste was actually better than the two products separated.

"Control freak is like the stereotypical geek/nerd. And I didn't like him when I was a kid, mostly because he looked creepy and he was fat." Moka rubbed her eyes, feeling uncharacteristically tired. Her arm stretched out to steal a _pain au chocolat_ from Mistress in what could only be called a parody of stealth.

"Anyway," she continued, biting into it. "I don't really like 'Twisted Sisters'. The 'Twisted' part makes us sound bad. I want something that broadcasts us as pranksters, but in a way that makes people take us seriously and not just think 'rebellious teenagers'."

It was a bit true, Mistress thought. But according to herself, if they took an already existing name from their world and used it for their own purpose, then the only ones who would be aware of it would be Moka and her, so really it wasn't a problem. It saved them from having to think up a whole new name.

"Why don't we just use a name that already exists in our world? Like maybe...The Marauders~ They were famous pranksters."

Megan's eyebrows came together, wrinkling her skin, and her mouth twisted. "The Marau- ah _yes_, them." She then added, for Mistress' benefit. "Most of my English knowledge comes through books, so words like that, that you don't use often, well I tend to pronounce them with an accent, or I'll just read them like I would a French word, since I've never heard anyone say them correctly before. So in my head, I always said it differently. That's why I didn't recognize the name. But seriously, could we avoid something with more than one 'r' in it? I sometimes have trouble saying it - I saw it like a 'w'. So the words 'rich', someone with money, and 'witch', that does magic, I say them the same way. And I can't take myself seriously if I can't even say the name of our group."

She felt a little bad about rejecting every one of Mistress' ideas, so she decided to propose one herself. "How about 'The Deviants'? Because that's what we are - a normal insert would go to the Titans, make out with one of them or have a love triangle or something, and have a tragic past in which all her family is dead, and would spend all her time ensuring the plot stays the same, so nothing interesting actually happens. We're deviants because we deviate from that. We're not Mary-Sues." She thought of the remote and added: "Or at least, I hope not."

"Well yeah~" agreed the woman, smiling wryly. "We're no Mary-Sues. You're not super cutsey-utsey all the time and well...I don't exactly fit the Mary-Sue body image," she said, referring to the fact that with her naturally large and wide bone structure, as well as all the rest, her body was the kind you couldn't easily buy clothes for in a normal store, it was more XXL, really. Moka was secretly jealous of the size of the long-haired girl's breasts, though they must have been hellish to carry around.

"Plus," Mistress continued. "Mary-Sue stories are so boring and predictable. The Deviants is pretty good for a name. I say we stick with it if we can't come up with anything cooler."

Moka pursed her lips at the last comment, and said:

"I say we get our own names. We know what our group name is, but we need codenames! Like Clark Kent's codename is Superman! If we're going to be going all out, we deserve our own names! We could be..." she wracked her mind for something good, but all she could come up with was "Pause and Play?"

"Why not just stick with our pennames? Ya know, Moka and Mistress. We've kind of dissolved into calling each other that anyways. I haven't actually called you Megan since we first got here." Mistress yawned. "Hey, why don't we go for a walk so I don't fall asleep?"

Megan's gaze went to their overly heavy bags, and instead, she decided to pause everything, using the handy remote she had on her.

"There," said the girl. "We can leave our stuff here and no one will be able to take it. Then we can come back later. No offense, but I don't have the back of a Terminator - all this gets a little heavy after a while."

Nodding, Mistress set down everything she was carrying but one box of pastries. Grabbing a banana nut muffin, she repeated her earlier question:

"So… What do you think of us just keeping our pennames? I'm kind of fond of the name Mistress~ Friends even called me that back in our world. It was my nickname."

Shrugging, Moka decided it was as good as anything else. "Sure."

They left their stuff there, and went for a walk in the park, no specific destination in mind. They walked along a few stones paths and crossed a small bridge with a fisherman there.

Mistress saw a frozen street performer holding a guitar with his case open. He has very little money in it, so she tossed a five dollar bill at him and continued on.

"I have no clue if this guy was any good, but anybody who'll come out in public and perform is okay in my book, Moka."

The short haired girl did not say anything, she just smiled in a distracted way, continuing to walk briskly, her long legs swallowing the distance as if it were nothing.

-x-x-x-

On the other side of the city, in a very familiar tower, were our resident heroes.

"Robin, what is the matter? You seem most distressed," said a pretty red-haired alien by the name of Starfire, coming over to him.

Robin closed the folder her had been looking through and rubbed his eyebrows in aggravation. "It's nothing, Star. There's been a string of unexplainable thefts happening recently, and the authorities suspect it might be a meta, because there's no evidence what so ever on the security tapes. I've been trying my best, but I really don't know who's doing this."

Starfire looked puzzled. "But if such thefts were happening, surely the alarm alerting us of the presence of villains would ring?"

He sighed. "It's not that easy. By the time anyone realizes something's gone, any possible trail's gone cold." He reached for a thin remote and said, "If you wouldn't mind, I'm getting back to it." And he pressed on play. The giant television screen in front of him was showing the street outside one of the robbed malls, and Robin was hoping to see something, anything really, on it.

Starfire smiled. "I shall now go make the traditional Tamaranean dish of Kaduk'lah, to be eaten in times of great frustration when one doesn't find what they seek. I hope it will help you in your research!" And she flew away.

As time passed, Robin only grew more and more frustrated. On each video tape there were only normal people, none of the flashy suits or capes that signalled a supervillain. He was beginning to entertain the thought that this could be an inside job, by the employees themselves, but there was no proof. Or, he thought suspiciously, maybe this was all some kind of test concocted by the mayor to ensure they did their job properly. The man was an a-hole, and Robin could clearly see him doing something like that.

"Dude!"

Sighing, Robin prepared himself to be pestered by BeastBoy for a reason that was probably unimportant.

"What?" he asked, or more like snapped. Several hours of fruitless research tended to do that.

But BeastBoy ignored him completely; he was looking at the screen showing Harrison Avenue with a look that bordered on awe. "Dude," he repeated. "That is so cool!"

"It's just a street, BeastBoy," said Raven from where she was sitting, on the other side of the room, reading.

"No, no, I mean how they appeared out of nowhere!" he exclaimed.

Robin's head turned around to try and see what had made the boy react that way, but all he could see were a group of old people crossing the street, a business man talking on his phone, and two girls holding duffel bags chatting excitedly. "What do you mean?"

"Those two girls," BeastBoy said. "They just came out of nowhere!" He pointed at the girls on the screen, the ones talking and giggling together.

Robin knew better than to simply dismiss his teammate's claims, and he was desperate enough to rewind the tape and look at it more intently. Strangely, the girls were no longer there. As his eyes searched for them, suddenly they were there, in front of the shop, as if they had been there all along. They had effectively appeared out of thin air. One second the tape showed a street devoid of their presence, and the next… BAM! Two girls outside.

His eyes widened. "Everyone, check the other tapes!" he ordered. "See if those girls are in the others, too!"

Mere minutes later, he had his culprit. Or rather, his _culprit__**s**_.

-x-x-x-

Yawning, Mistress began readying up to start the day. It had been a few days since the arrival of her and her friend in this strange world, and it had become a habit that all their mornings would start the same way.

She showered and dressed promptly, barely needing more than thirty minutes, before walking over to Moka's room, a hairbrush in hand.

She knocked said object two times on the door, but didn't wait for a response. Opening the door, she peered in.

"Moka. Come on. Get up. I said I wanted to go to that plus size boutique I saw yesterday." No response. "Come oooon Mokaaaaa!"

Incaring of the fact that the younger girl rarely slept in pyjamas, Mistress crept inside the room. She kneeled on the edge of the bed and started bouncing up and down. Apparently a fan of multi-tasking, she brushed her hair while annoying the sleepy person in the bed.

Megan groaned, burying deeper into her covers. She didn't want to wake. She had been having such a nice dream in which she had been chasing a giant brownie, and had just been about to bite into her prize when Mistress woke her.

"Hnnguuh," she mumbled.

It should have come out as a 'leave me alone to my brownies', but somehow her mouth didn't seem in the mood to cooperate.

Mistress huffed. Knowing she had to press the matter of waking before that self-proclaimed lazy toad went back to sleep, she smacked Moka's blanket-covered butt with her brush.

"Come on already~! You promised you'd come and help me pick some cute things out and give me your opinion on stuff~! I don't wanna go alone, that's no fun!"

Her bouncing grew steadily brusquer to the point of almost-violence. Moka still refused to stir.

"Come on Mokaaaa!"

Eventually, Mistress jumped so hard that Moka bounced off the bed, and nearly fell on the floor. But with reflexes born of desperation, the girl took hold of the edge of the bed just in time. However, her body was a few centimetres from the floor, and the only thing stopping her from falling was her very, _very_ tight hold on the mattress.

"**Mistress!** Seriously, we don't all wake up at the crack of dawn!" Moka hissed, clearly unhappy. She didn't really know what time it was, but she understood her body's demands, and right now it was craving a comfy cushion and a duvet.

Mistress rolled her eyes at her friend's dramatics. It was way past dawn and had the girl had gone to bed at a normal time, so she shouldn't be so tired. Mistress just waved her hairbrush at Moka's face and helped her back onto the bed.

"Oh puh-leez. You're being a total drama-queen. It's almost eleven o'clock for Pete's sake. Now come on. We can go to that nice restaurant you took a liking to once we leave the boutique~" Mistress's attempts of persuasion weren't the most subtle. She knew the promise of tasty food was the only thing that always worked.

One of Moka's eyes opened cautiously, expecting a trick. She wouldn't put it past the woman to torture her via tickles just to get her out of bed, or to plain pull her out of it. Or, well, BOUNCE her out of it, like she had previously done.

"I'm awake... could you go out a minute? I'll put some clothes on and join you in a mo'," she said, pulling the covers over her. She had gone to bed only in her knickers, and though they both had the same anatomy, she just wasn't that comfortable yet. Not enough to start displaying her body, even if it was in anime form, with bright colours. …Or cartoon form.

…Whatever style Teen Titans was drawn in.

Mistress chuckled and said, "Sure. But if you're not out soon I'll come back and get you~" And just because she could, she tickled her friend's side.

She moved away just in time to escape being slapped.

Giggling, the shapely woman returned to her room to dig around for her heeled boots. She searched all though her piles of clothes but didn't find them. She was about to go knock on Moka's door to ask her if she knew where they were, but at that moment she saw something black sticking out from under her bed, next to her stack of sketch books.

She peeked under the bed and whooped in joy when she saw her boots.

She realized that Moka-Moka wasn't making any noise. Probably still lazing about.

"MOKA!" Mistress roared. "ARE YOU READY YET?! I'M ALL SET TO GO!"

From under her covers in her own room, Moka groaned.

"Nearlyyyy..." she moaned out.

Pushing off her duvet, the doe-eyed girl crawled out of her bed, onto the floor, and searched for her clothes, stumbling about on all fours.

Bored, Mistress grabbed one of her sketch books and flipped it to a blank page. She began sketching. At first she didn't know what she was drawing, but then after a few minutes the shapes began forming stereotypical hooded figures.

There was a loud thud, which came from the other room, and the woman looked up, concerned.

"HEY MOKA?! WAS THAT YOU MAKING THAT NOISE?"

From where she was one the floor, half-naked, Moka froze.

"Huh... O-of course not!" Idiot. It was too early in the morn' for her to lie in a convincing manner.

She slipped on a skin-coloured bra, as well as the bright pink sleeveless top on the floor near her, and grabbed a pair of dark jeans that flared out slightly, covering all of her feet save for the tip of her toes, to put them on her chilled legs. A pair of black platform shoes completed the look, and Moka tried to ignore the fact that she sometimes still had trouble walking in them. They looked good on her, and as long as she didn't need to run, there wouldn't be any trouble.

She was glad her periods had ended yesterday – at least that meant one less trouble for her to worry about. Her lower abdominal area wasn't hurting anymore, and she could think clearly without wanting to murder someone.

Knowing Mistress wasn't always the most patient of people, she hurriedly went to hunt for her earrings. They were shaped and coloured to look like small daisies, and those were the ones she had been wearing when she had appeared in this strange world. Now, they held a special significance that would never go away.

Once she was ready to go, with her trusty backpack and the magical remote, she called out to Mistress, in a false snobby tone:

"Darling, I am ready~"

Mistress grabbed up her new favourite summer hoodie and put it on. It was see through and made of black lace, and it went beautifully with her turquoise dress and tall over-the-knee boots.

"I'm coming, Your Majesty~," she sang back sarcastically, shouldering her purple backpack. In her other hand, she held a black messenger bag.

-x-x-x-

It was while they were walking outside that Moka noticed it. "You know, both our pennames start with 'M'. We're the two 'm's!" And then, because she just HAD to make a joke, she added: "M&Ms!"

That made her remember that they hadn't eaten anything yet. Lately she had been abusing the privilege of the remote to steal unhealthy but delicious food, and she knew she had to make an effort to not put on too much weight, because she had worked hard in her own world to stay fit, and she really didn't want to change that now. Maybe after they robbed their latest store, they could go out and eat at a restaurant or something?

Mistress, who didn't find her 'M&Ms' joke very funny, just gave Moka a _look_ and said monotonous voice:

"Oh Moka, that was so lame."

Once down in the lobby, she continued talking.

"Hey, how 'bout we go to that good restaurant I told you about while you were in bed, once we're done at the shops?" Mistress was getting pretty hungry, she hadn't eaten yet that day.

They walked outside, into the frigid morning air. There was a slight drizzle, but not enough for an umbrella. Mistress took out the remote and _paused_ everything. As soon as all movement around them ceased, she went towards other pedestrians and grabbed all the money in their pockets, which equalled to over a hundred dollars.

Afterwards, she went back to standing next to Moka and pressed _play._ She carefully hid the remote in her purse for safe keeping. Then she and Moka went to the nearby curb and the taller woman hailed a cab.

The taxis in Jump City sucked. Sometimes, Moka had to physically reign herself in to avoid saying something like 'Where d'you get your license, in a Happy Meal?!', because you don't say that to your driver. He could get mean and decide revenge was in order. But still, she couldn't help but ask the driver to slow down several times. He didn't listen, the jerk, and Moka spent the whole ride glued to Mistress' side, persuaded that she was going to die.

"I hate taxis," she declared once they got out of the vehicle.

Mistress rolled her eyes. "If you think his driving was bad then you should have seen my brother Max or my sister Jill drive," she said cheekily. "But enough melodrama; Let's go, I wanna see all the cute things this place has. It's a store dedicated to plus size women. You know how hard it is to find nice things in my size?"

They passed by a group of teen boys all wearing green hoodies. They whistled and hooted at them and one was even bold enough to call out to the two women, "Hey baby! When do those legs open?!"

Before Moka could say anything, Mistress took the lead and replied in a b*tchy tone:

"Way past your bedtime."

While his friends laughed at him, Mistress dragged her friend down the street and away from the rowdy group of teens.

"Ew," whispered Moka. "That was icky."

Despite all the stuff she read, be it M-rated or lower, she was still a virgin and actually talking about those things bothered her much more than reading explicit stuff with her fellow friends back in Europe, Angèle and Claudine. She crept closer to Mistress, not at all ashamed that she was essentially acting like a child, and hooked their arms together.

Mistress just smiled at her essentially innocent friend, not needing an explanation to understand. While she was quite experienced in those regards, having had a few good boyfriends and girlfriends, her younger friend was most certainly as virginal as it got.

So she let her hold onto her. and said brashly, "Oh honey don't worry. I guarantee those boys were as inexperienced as you are." Moka frowned at that comment. "I bet if I came onto them as aggressively as they just did, they wouldn't even know how to react or what to do."

Moka smiled, and they entered the shop Mistress had been so interested in. Being filled to the brim with clothes, Moka knew that comrade would find just what she need here. Everything was on pause, time completely stopped, so Mistress could go straight to trying everything on.

"I'm gonna sit down somewhere and read until you're finished, 'kay?"

Mistress ignored her completely, in favour of squealing happily and running into the store. Thankfully, she took the time to make sure the remote was safely back in her purse seconds prior to that.

Mistress started with the dresses and began trying them on. It was a private fashion show for Moka to witness. Most things Mistress didn't like, but one red dress with black polka dots was really adorable. It only came to her knees and had a plunging sweetheart neckline.

Grinning at her reflection, the chubby woman rushed out to show her friend.

"Moka! What do you think? I really like it." She did a little twirl and held the end of the dress out in a typical girly fashion.

In full thinking mode, Moka observed her critically. "I think you need a bow to go along with it. You'd look supra cute!" And it was true; she looked adorable in the dress. With some white tights and black ballerina shoes added to that, the image would be complete. Mistress was a giant, but despite that, the dress made her appear smaller.

Mistress looked down at herself and hummed in thought. "A bow? Where? Like in my hair or around my waist or something?"

"In your hair, definitely," said Moka. "Around your waist, it would look unflattering." She didn't mention that it was because her friend's significant weight would not look good with something strapped around it. That was for skinny little girls. "You should look for those headbands with a cute little bow on the side of the head. Try something black or white, but don't take anything colourful."

The woman nodded. Yawning, she went hunting for the headbands she possessed. She found them quite easily and spotted a headband with a red silk rose on it. Staring in awe, she snatched it up and put it on. She looked at herself in the mirror. Perfect. And her black boots even kind of matched. She decided not to change back into her turquoise dress. She was going to wear this _all_ _day!_

"Hey Moka… How do I look now? Super cute and sexy, _right_?" She grinned coyly, striking a seductive, playful pose.

Moka smirked. "I could totally do you, darling." Seriously, Mistress was just asking for her to say something like that. "Anyway, hurry up 'cause I'm gettin' seriously hungry. I haven't had breakfast yet, and I want myself something yummy." She rubbed her tummy to reinforce her point.

The clothes shop was big, and Mistress wouldn't be finished anytime soon. But they could always come back another day. After all, they had all the time in the world.

Mistress pursed her lips, thinking. "Okay just give me five more minutes and we'll go get some food. Be right back!"

Then she ran back to the racks and started looking again. She browsed through the corsets and underthings. Not very picky, she quickly fell in love with three different sets of lingerie. Looking through a few more racks, Mistress allowed herself one last look, before bagging everything.

"Okay I'm done. We can go eat now~"

Raising an eyebrow, Moka commented, on the woman's speed. Shouldering her bag, she set off, looking behind her as she passed the front door to ensure Mistress was following. "I'll let you press play 'cause you've got the remote," she said.

Since Mistress knew better than to do it straight away, they walked a bit until they were somewhere more secluded so they could un_pause_ without tons of people gawking.

Once they were alone, Mistress pressed _play_ and then walked back out into the street.

"Do you want to go to that restaurant down the street, within walking distance, or do you want to take a cab to the really good one across town?"

Take a taxi again? Oh no, no way was Moka doing that. "I'd rather the one within walking distance."

And so they walked, talking and laughing. Being stranded in a cartoon was strange, Moka decided, but it was bearable if you had a friend. And Mistress was the perfect kind of friend with which to go through such a crazy adventure.

They got to the restaurant in record time and had no trouble finding a table.

"What are you gonna get?" asked Mistress, picked up a menu.

Moka scanned the piece of paper and decided, after much deliberation, that she wanted the chicken wings with the salad, and that she just wanted water to drink.

Curious about what Mistress wanted, she asked, "And what do you want?"

"Hmmm~ I was thinking of having the fried rice and cashew chicken. And some tea to drink." Mistress nodded decisively.

Looking around, the woman spotted a waiter a few tables away. Once he was done, she called him over and both girls ordered.

It was a nice moment, and one during which they could almost pretend to be normal. They ate and chatted about all sorts of things, laughing and making faces.

The chicken wings were great and the skin quite crunchy, but Moka didn't quite appreciate how the salad was _drowning_ in sauce. She ate some of the lettuce, but left most of it alone. She ended up being finished before Mistress, but it didn't overly bother her to wait.

Mistress finished her food without complaint and then wiped her mouth with a paper napkin.

"Was your food not good? Or did it fill you up faster than you thought?" she asked, realizing that most of her friend's salad was still in the bowl. 'Maybe she wasn't as hungry as she thought,' thought Mistress, wondering.

Then she pulled the remote from her purse and held it in her hand casually, ready to pause and ditch the place as soon as her friend was.

Megan placed her hand on Mistress'. "No, this time we pay." She did that – deciding to pay instead of taking the easy way out - every time they had more money than they needed, even taking into account all the petty things they bought. She was used to stealing, but that didn't quite mean that she didn't feel bad about it. "We'll ask for the receipt, pay and then go back to the hotel."

Mistress smiled and shrugged, slipping the handy little remote back into her purse. She raised her hand and called for the check. Unlike Moka, she was fine with never paying for anything for the rest of her life. And though Moka did steal more often than not, Mistress knew she still felt guilty for it. So she eased that feeling by occasionally paying for the food they bought. Mistress didn't really see the logic but didn't say anything. She didn't want to burst her friends bubble and make her feel sad or, god forbid, depressed.

"Still have that habit of paying now and again huh? Don't you worry hun~ I'll make an honest criminal of you yet~" Mistress said, her voice teasing.

Moka didn't have time to reply, because at that moment the waiter came by with the check and set it on the table. Mistress snatched it up eagerly.

She winced.

Their meals and drinks had cost a whopping twenty five dollars(?!). Twelve dollars for Mistress's meal and tea and thirteen for Moka's salad and plate of wings. The water had been free.

The long haired woman scoffed, outraged. "Well~ This restaurant is certainly... _proud_ of its food. They must be if the price of everything is any indication. I mean, my glass of tea cost two dollars. And your small plate of wings was almost five! Good god."

Moka looked down on her plate and shrugged. "I've spent my life in one of the most expensive countries ever. Trust me, there are places where it could be worst."

She retrieved a bill of fifty dollars, and called over another waiter who was passing by with a pitcher full of water.

"'Scuse me, but could we pay now?"

The man smiled politely. "I'll be back in a moment." And then he went over to a table to give them the water.

Moka looked over at her friend. "Should we give him a tip? I heard that in America, people often tip up to twenty five per cent of the price of the food they paid for."

"Yeah~ We do. But the size of the tip depends completely on the waiter. The food and stuff was out of his control so we'll leave him four dollars. Because though he was polite he only had to refill our drinks once. So he didn't do much. But four is still good."

The waiter returned a moment later. He thanked them when they said he could keep four dollars of the change. He was carrying a huge walled with the logo of the restaurant, he gave them back the extra money.

"Hey, wanna grab a cab?" asked Mistress once they were outside. "It's that or walk the ten miles back to the hotel."

Moka pursed her lips. "No," she said, her tone succinct. "The drivers are crazy here. Let's take the bus - we'll pause if someone comes to inspect for tickets." She repressed a shudder as she remembered the cab ride she had already been forced to live through today.

Mistress looked confused. "Tickets? What are you- oh wait, nevermind. I keep forgetting you're not originally from the States. We don't use tickets for the bus. You just pay as you get on. It was seventy-five cents per person last time I checked."

Mistress looked around and then pointed to down the street. There was a bus stop there that had a few people already waiting. Just a few teenage boys, who luckily weren't in matching green hoodies, and an elderly older woman.

The girls looked both ways and, seeing no car in the vicinity, crossed the street.

Once at the stop, Mistress read the schedule carefully and figured out the next bus was probably the one they needed.

Both women waited for about five minutes, and then the bus arrived.

Mistress pulled some change out and paid for them both. And it turned out the bus was only fifty cents, which was an outrageously low price, according to a very surprised Moka.

The bus stop they had to go to was by Greenstreet. After that, they would have to walk for five minutes or so until they reached the hotel. However, Greenstreet was quite far away, and the bus wasn't taking the most direct route. So Moka sat back, and laid her head on Mistress' shoulder to relax.

"Hey," she asked asked. "Do you miss them? The people back in our home place?" She wasn't about to say 'world'. You could never be too sure someone wasn't listening in.

Mistress leaned back against the thinly padded bus seats. "Sometimes~" she said, her voice hushed. "But then I think about how amazing this is and remember that my life wasn't the best and I was pretty much powerless. At least here I have some semblance of control. And I have a friend, so that's good."

Mistress laid her head on top of Moka's and yawned. Understandably, she was tired from all that shopping and then the food. It may have been expensive to her but it was tasty. She watched as they stopped and a few people got off. Luckily Green St. was still a few stops away. So Mistress settled in and rested her hands on her lap.

Moka's eyes misted over as she remembered: "I always got into fights with my mum, but I really loved her, you now?" And the she realized what she said. "Gosh, I'm talking about her as if she's dead! I should be using present instead of past simple, but I can't help talking about my old life like that - as if it's dead."

Mistress wrapped her arm around the teenager's shoulder.

"Don't be so sad Moka~ Who knows? Maybe we'll get to go back someday. But I do know being depressed isn't the way to go. Maybe after we get our own place you can get a new hobby! You can take up knitting or cooking~ Or we can go take a class together? Something fun and artsy, like pottery class or a painting class. How's that sound?"

Moka smiled. "I'd totally go for a cooking class. I'd throw the sugar at you."

It was fun to imagine that, and it took her mind off things. Moka was a more tactile person than most - she always liked touching everything, and couldn't keep her hands to herself. Anything like painting or cooking she adored, because it went along with that tactile part of her. But somehow, she just couldn't imagine Mistress cooking. Instead, she saw her laughing maniacally, with servants scurrying around her, yelling 'Make me food, now, you peasants!' and whipping those who didn't obey.

Mistress lightly tugged at a strand of the girl's short brown hair. "I'd have to retaliate and then we'd end up having a food fight. And of course we'd get our butts kicked out. But fear not. If you really want to learn to cook then I'd be glad to teach you. I can cook all kinds of foods, but I have to say… Baking sweets and bread is my favourite. I've been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my family for the past three years~"

Mistress smiled at the thought of all the tasty dishes she'd learned to cook in her relatively short life. From the traditional Thanksgiving meal to the Calamari and fried oyster skins her last ex-boyfriend had loved to eat. Though he had been prohibited kissing until he brushed his teeth of the smell.

"What would you like to do?" Moka asked. "If we're stuck here forever, we need to do something else than stealing. It'll become tedious after a while. Is there any activity you fancy?"

Mistress appeared strong enough to like sports, but Moka thought the woman was probably more artistic, since she was an author (well, of fanfiction).

Said woman tapped her chin in thought. "Well, I had a few different things I enjoyed. I loved drawing, painting, sculpting, anything artistic you could do with your hands really. And I love to sew and make dolls. And..." here she giggled a bit and continued, "I did have one other hobby~ You can pretty much guess what it was just by hearing my nickname Mistress."

Moka blinked. "You liked sleeping with married men?"

"What? No. Hahahaha! No, no… Not that kind of Mistress I assure you. I meant the bondage kind. You know~ Like a Mistress and her submissive. Get it?" Mistress was becoming amused by this misunderstanding.

Hoping it wasn't something she wasn't allowed to ask about, Moka questioned, "Did you... do that stuff? With other people? Or did you just like dirty magazines with that stuff in it?" The conversation becoming a little disturbing, but Moka was curious to know the answer.

Mistress smiled, though It had a foreign quality to it that Moka couldn't quite understand. "I did it with other people yes~ I even taught some people the basics a few times."

Realization came slowly, but when it did, Moka turned bright red. "Oh. Okay." Well, this was certainly embarrassing. She felt a little... unknowledgeable, compared to Mistress, seeing as she had yet to sleep with anyone in the traditional way.

"Hey now~" said Mistress, once more reading Moka's expressions with surprising ease. "Don't be embarrassed. Nothing wrong with not knowing a million and one things about sex. Everyone has different levels of knowledge in regards to sex. Don't feel bad because you know less."

"How did you know what I was thinking?" demanded Moka. "I'm not that effing transparent!" Gosh, it was creepy how Mistress would just say something in answer to her thoughts like that. Even her best friends, Flavia and Angèle, had never been able to read her like that.

At that moment, the bus stopped by Flower Springs, which was just before their stop.

"No offence, hun, but you're kind of an open book in regards to your emotions."

Moka's face scrunched up, unhappy. "Chucks. That won't be useful in a world full of emotionless villains.

She grabbed Mistress' hand and began playing with the fingers, inspecting her friend's nails and amusing herself by making Mistress give the finger to an oblivious old lady.

Mistress rolled her eyes. She wiggled her fingers around and tried to reach for her friend's face. Amusingly, she managed to tickle Moka's nose.

Moka wriggled her nose and started moving it like a rabbit. "Hee-hee," she laughed, poking out her tongue.

Their childish behaviour ceased when they came to their stop. They exited the bus, and stepped out on Greenstreet, to walk towards the hotel.

"C'mon slow poke~" shouted Mistress. "I'm gonna leave you if you don't hurry~"

With a look of fond exasperation, Moka followed after her friend. "Wait for me, Miss bondage!" she called, mindful to keep her teasing discreet to avoid anybody else from hearing it but Mistress.

"Yeah yeah~ Whatever my innocent little flower."

Moka entered the reception of the hotel a few minutes later, followed closely by Mistress. Barry, one of the guys that worked there, greeted them warmly, and Moka gave a little wave. It really wasn't good that people started remembering them, she thought. They were both criminals, so they should start changing hotels soon.

They walked up to the elevator. They saw a hand written sign on the metallic doors and groaned in frustration:

OUT OF ORDER. PLEASE USE STAIRS.

"Oh god~ Why us, why now? I'm so freaking tired and these bags are heavier than hell. Ugh~!" She sighed in annoyance. "Well, let's just get this crap over with so I can lay down."

They both slowly made their way up the tall flight of stairs to their floor. It was only one level but still, they'd been walking all day and were very tired.

Once they made it to their connected rooms Mistress huffed. "I don't want to have to pull my keycard out too. I'll just go into my room through the connected door we have."

Moka pulled out her own keycard and went up to her door and pressed the card to the slot. But they both froze when the card didn't go in, instead the pressure on the door pushed it open. It hadn't been locked.

"Here, I'll go first," said Mistress, pulling her friend back. "It might be a burglar or something."

She placed all her bags in one hand and carefully opened the door further.

Mistress cautiously walked in with Moka literally right behind her. The taller woman wondered if maybe friend was scared before she brushed off that thought and stepped into the room.

She froze in shock when she saw who'd broken into their rooms.

It was none other than the Teen Titans. Raven, with her long dark cape, was standing next to red-haired Starfire, who was looking at a cute shirt of Moka's. Cyborg was flipping through channels on the tv, and Beast Boy was laying on Moka's unmade bed flipping through a book.

Mistress gasped when she saw the book he was happily investigating was one of her many sketchbooks. Making noise was a mistake on her part. The heroes all looked up, and realizing the girls were there, dropped everything and jumped into battle ready mode.

Robin pointed at them and said with what Mistress thought was a touch of satisfaction, "Freeze!"

Moka didn't quite know what to do when she took in the scene in front of here. One part of here wanted to squeal giddily, and another wanted to run. So, as Mistress gasped, Moka did the smart thing.

She ran like the devil himself was after her.

That was all the Titans needed. And with Robin's customary war-cry of 'Titans, go!' behind her, she stumbled out of her hotel room, hoping Mistress was running too, and made for the stairs. Unfortunately, a civilian like her was no match for superheroes. In less time than it took to blink she was snatched up by enormous, furry green arms, encaging her. While she couldn't move her own arms, she still made a valiant effort at escape.

Kicking and screaming, she tried to wrench herself from Beastboy's grasp. Of course, she knew that she was no match for a gorilla, but the furry appendages gave a little and she almost believed she could escape, when Robin decided to come and help his teammate.

"You and your companions are accused of heavy theft. You're coming with us," Robin said, and, oh God, was that a triumphant smirk on his face?

"F*ck you!" Moka screamed. "Mistress, Mistress, HELP!" she wailed, as her wrists were cuffed by the Boy Wonder. She couldn't even run; Beastboy was utterly crushing her ribcage!

Back in the room, Mistress turned towards to the three remaining Titans that were watching her like hawks, and she instantly knew they were caught. There was no way she could get away on foot so she didn't bother fleeing. She wondered if she could get to her purse and by extension, the remote stashed in it.

So as fast as she possibly could she stuck her hand in her purse and felt around for the remote. She cried out in alarm when Cyborg grabbed her wrist in a tight grip and yanked her hand from her purse. Mistress wanted to groan when Raven used her powers to take her bag, which contained the remote, from her.

Out of options the tall brunette gave up. "Okay~ I give up. And ouch, don't be so rough man. I didn't hurt you so please return the courtesy."

Cyborg had the decency to look sheepish as he loosened his grip from 'painful' level to 'tolerable'.

Starfire came forward with a pair of wrist cuffs. "I am most sorry it had to come to this." She clipped them into place around Mistress's wrists.

Said woman just sighed again and replied, "No~ It's fine I guess. You all are just doing your jobs I suppose."

It was at that moment that she head Moka's cries for help, as well as the insults the young girl was hurling at the heroes, on the other side of the wall.

"Moka~!" shouted Mistress. "Calm down. They won't hurt us. Just stop flailing~ You're going to hurt yourself."

-x-x-x-

When Mistress told her to calm down, Moka knew the situation was bad, and they couldn't get out of it. Using her long legs o her advantage, she kicked them high upwards in an arc and wrapped them around the gorillas throat, intending to use him to pull herself out of his hold using her leg muscles.

Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough, and Robin reached out to stop her. His gloved hand came in contact with her very ticklish side, and before he even had time to do anything to stop her, she had let her legs fall back down with a huff. She wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of seeing just _how_ ticklish she was.

"Yeah, yeah, get on with it already."

Robing threw her a dirty look. Or what appeared to be one. Despite how facially expressive his mask was, it was still difficult to get a fix on his emotions. So a grouchy Moka was escorted back into the room, where she saw Mistress cuffed.

"Heh, what d'you know. You're living up to your nickname, girl!" she said, referring to their earlier conversation in the bus, about bondage and the like. Though cuffs were not rope… Moka knew that sort of stuff was also used in such… activities.

Mistress grinned deviously at the confused looks a couple of the Titans were giving them. With a laugh she cocked her hips and winked at Moka.

"Oh honey~ You've got it backwards. I was the one tying the others up with chains and such. You don't tie the Mistress up~"

Moka's captor's grip tightened. She struggled, of course, but she couldn't do much. When Raven opened up a portal to take Mistress and her God knows where, she threw up her left leg in one violent motion, and her platform shoe went flying. By sheer, dumb luck, it hit Robin square across the jaw in an overly dramatic manner befitting of a cartoon.

Complete…

…silence.

And then Beastboy roughly pushed her forward, through the black portal.

-x-x-x-

Mistress watched it all in silence. When Cyborg went to push her through the portal too, she asked him to hold on, using a fake, sugary voice. Knowing she had little time, she bent down and picked Moka's discarded shoe up.

"She's gonna need this later. I don't want her walking around barefoot. She'll catch a cold."

-x-x-x-

She was in the Tower. Moka was in the Tower of the Teen Titans. With wide eyes, she stared at the surroundings she knew so well through the countless hours in front of the TV.

The rest of the team and Mistress came out of the portal a few seconds later, and Moka was relieved to see her shoe in her friend's hands. Despite how amusing it had been to hit a hero with it, wearing only one heeled shoe had thrown off her balance horribly.

"Raven," Batman's sidekick said. "Place them in the interrogation rooms."

"Interrogation?" Moka asked, incredulous.

"Can I give my friend her shoe first before you separate us?" asked Mistress, turned towards Starfire.

"Yes," answered the alien. "You may return the odd one her shoe."

Thanking the heor, Mistress went to kneel in front of Moka. "Here's your shoe Moka~ These floors look really cold." She slipped the shoe back on and whispered quickly and only loud enough for Moka to hear: "~Remember, don't tell them anything."

Then, she stood up with a calm smile on her face and said louder, "There we go~ All better, friend."

Raven looked suspicious, but since she hadn't heard anything she couldn't exactly speak up. Her powers manifested, and Moka found herself bound by the dark aura typical of the heroine, and was raised up in the air. The same happened with Mistress, and soon they were off, guided by Raven. Moka lost count of the many twists and turns early on, unable to keep up with where she was taken. It was probably done on purpose, so that in case they escaped, they wouldn't find the exit very easily.

Moka was dumped on a metal chair in a cold, grey room. Raven used her powers to strap her down, and then left with Mistress. Moka was now alone in an 'interrogation room', waiting for something to happen. She knew the Titans were good guys, so they'd probably resort to psychological torture.

Breathing in deeply, Moka let an almost invisible smirk appear. If they wanted answers, they'd have to go through hell for her to talk.

-x-x-x-

Raven had carried Mistress to a room identical to the one she had left Moka in. Surprisingly, the woman hadn't been strapped up to a chair. That was probably because Raven could take her on easily if anything happened.

"So...what now? You all kind of just kidnapped me and my friend."

"You and your friend are accused of robbing six shopping malls, three markets, numerous restaurants, at least four libraries and more than fifty people, all that without being seen." Raven's eyes narrowed. "However, you neglected to think of the cameras on the streets, and that was your mistake."

Mistress just smiled. "Oh? You think we did all those naughty things? And you say all the proof you have that we did them is some camera footage? Footage that any fool with a computer can manipulate? That's not very strong evidence~" She giggled and leaned forward onto the table.

Raven didn't even blink. "Cyborg verified the tapes. Unless you are affiliated with groups strong enough to hack into every system of Jump to change the camera footage, then it is you we are looking for. You are not identified as a citizen of this state, nor is your associate. We have checked." Her dead stare bore into Mistress. "You are obviously a meta-human, or something close, yet you commit petty thefts. Why did you not rob a bank?"

"Mayta-human? You think we're meta-humans? We're just normal ladies~"

The dark-haired sorceress narrowed her eyes. "Then how did you manage to evade all cameras in the shops you stole from, just to appear outside them as if you didn't care to be the least bit discreet? Clearly, you don't work for someone, because there are no brains in your operation."

Mistress hummed in disapproval at Raven's tone, and said like a mother scolding a child: "Well~ You certainly are rude. First you break into my friend and I's rooms, then attack and kidnap us, and finally you call us stupid. Weren't you taught any manners? But I'm not sure which is worse~ All of that or the fact you're walking around without pants on."

Raven's magic crackled very slightly to show her ire.

The half-demon's upper lip curled into something that could nearly be called a sneer, ignoring the dig. "Who are you? What is your purpose?"

Mistress smiled cattily and replied, "My codename is 'Mistress'~ I am a Federal Agent from the Bureau of Intelligence and Surveillance. My actions, where I go, who I talk to, and my life before I became an Agent are all top secret. Only a select few even know I exist. Congratulations, you are now one of the few who know. And before you five children abducted me I was on an undercover case. I've been successfully shadowing a P.O.I. for the past few weeks. But now that you've all interfered I'm afraid my cover has been blown."

Mistress was so glad she was so good lying otherwise she'd have burst into laughter from the slight shock on the blue haired girl's face, though it was only temporary.

"You lie," Raven whispered. "We verified with the government to know if you had caused trouble before. We would have known even if you were the most important spy there is." She straightened, and her eyes reddened, casting a frightening glow. "Tell me, Mistress..." You could almost hear her smirking. "How did you do it? How did you steal all that without even being there?"

Mistress sighed in mock boredom, though she was starting to sweat. "Do you honestly think the government will just hand out top secret case files to five children? Tell me you're not that naive~ I'm serious, tell me you're not still so innocent after the life you've lived. After everything you've seen, Raven."

The long haired woman didn't even flinch when Raven's magic started to leak out in threatening tentacle-like curls.

"Ah-ah-ah~ You better calm down. Don't want your magic to lash out because you're unable to control your emotions do you?"

Raven didn't bother going any further - she knew the two criminals were going to be shipped off to the authorities very soon anyway. She took care to remember that this 'Mistress' knew her powers were emotion based, which only a few members of the Titans knew.

"You can confess, or not. It makes no difference. We have enough evidence to lock you away anyway." She smiled thinly. "And I think that the police will not be as patient with you, or as kind."

Mistress smiled and chuckled a bit and Raven felt herself frown when the older woman said, "Yes~ You'd think so wouldn't you?"

"They will receive answers, even if those have to come from your partner, who, according to what I have seen, will be much more likely to answer." Raven didn't bother with social niceties - she left without so much of a goodbye, closing the door silently behind her and leaving Mistress in darkness.

-x-x-x-

Gosh, this was boring. Moka tried swinging her legs, something she did when she was nervous, but she was strapped a little too tightly for that to be possible. Nobody had come in to interrogate her yet, and she was running out of things to do. Maybe... maybe this was their plan? Psychological torture? Have her wait so long she would spill everything once they come to question her?

Well, she decided, whatever their plan might be, she wasn't going to make it easy for them.

Clearing her throat, she did what she always did when bored; she sang.

"My mama told me when I was young, we're all born superstars." Her voice steadily gained in confidence and pitch. "She rolled my hair and put my lipstick on, in the glass of her boudoiiiiiiiiir!"

Moka was pretty sure Lady Gaga wasn't known yet, so this song probably wouldn't sound as great to someone from this cartonney world, considering she was singing this acapella-style.

"There's nothing wrong with loving who you are, she said, 'cause he made you perfect babe. So hold your head up, girl, and you'll go far. Listen to me when I say!"

And that's how she spent her time. She sang her heart out, ensuring her voice was as powerful as possible by using all the training her years as a Soprano had given her, as well as the solos she used to occasionally do. Her voice cracked once or twice, but that was quite normal, considering she hadn't done any vocal exercises since arriving to this place and meeting Mistress.

And when she reached the end of the song, the door to the room she was held in finally opened. She closed her mouth, interrupting herself.

"About time you showed up," she said, letting her head hang to the side.

Cyborg stepped into the room with Robin right behind him. The bigger boy spoke up as he stood across from you. "Hey, can the singing, lady. We got some questions, which you'll be answering." He loomed over Moka's smaller form, looking very intimidating.

Moka frowned. "Can... the singing?" Her French accent came out a little thicker than usual as she repeated the odd sentence. This expression was unfamiliar to her.

Cyborg quirked an eyebrow, and elaborated, his voice louder and slower. It was like he was talking to a small child. "I meant stop the singing! D'you understand?"

"Yeah, yeah... I got it, p'tit merdeux." Moka said, eyeing him up and down. It was strange to see him on something that wasn't a screen. She could really see the details of his robotic body that would only appear in close-ups on screen, and it looked really cool.

Cyborg noticed her staring. "Just what are you lookin' at, lady? Never seen a robo-guy before?" There was unmistakably some hurt in his tone, and Robin shot him a look for the transparency. Moka was just surprised at his reaction. She'd always thought he didn't care two cents about what people thought of his appearance.

Moka smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Just admiring the view, big-guy."

Surprisingly, Cyborg BLUSHED. She wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't been there to see it.

Some hair was obstructing her face, so she flicked her head to the side to rid herself of it. As she did that, she sneaked a glance at the Titan's boss. He wasn't looking at her, but she could see he didn't appear to be murderous. So her chances of living through this were good.

"So," Moka said. "What does Dick and his friend _le connard_ need to talk about?"

Robin's eyes narrowed. "What did you call me?" His voice was not particularly aggressive, but Moka felt threatened enough.

Scrambling for an explanation as to why she knew his name while appearing unfazed, Moka straightened her back to respond.

"A dick. All heroes are pansies. That's nothing new." She thought for a second. "Well, except Wolverine." Smirking, she added, "He's hot."

Well, except that he didn't exist here. But that didn't matter.

Robin glared.

It was Cyborg who spoke up and asked, "Wolve-?" But then he realized it was of no concern, and he was getting side-tracked.

The interrogation was fun at first, but boredom settled in eventually. Moka listened sleepily to Cyborg as he attempted to convince her that she just wasn't fit to be a super-villain (Imagine that! They considered her a super-villain, like Joker, or Loki, or Ra's al Ghul!), that she should return to school and find a job and work for the money she needed.

"Listen," Moka began, cutting him off. "I'm really sorry, but I can't work a proper job." Her behind had fallen asleep, so she shifted from side to side to rid herself of the feeling of pins and needles assaulting her backside. "I'm just like an illegal immigrant; I don't have any papers, ID, nothing."

That was her subtly telling them that real life wasn't an option any more. However, the robotic man continued down that train of thought nevertheless.

"Then don't you go back home, then? And don't tell me you come from a 'bad' situation-" he interrupted himself to shoot a glance towards Robin.

Judging by how they were talking via eye-contact, Moka guessed they had already talked of this before coming to her, and Cyborg wasn't sure if her should tell her what they thought of her, or if they were supposed to keep that to themselves.

"You're educated," said Robin, startling her. He hadn't talked much during the interrogation; it was strange that he spoke up just then. "Anyone can see that. It means you don't come from a poor country, and you didn't come to Jump City to make your fortune like somebody from poverty would hope to do. You've not been abused or traumatized, and you don't seem to have run away from home. My question is, now:"

He stared at Moka, and she gulped, feeling uncomfortable.

"Why are you here, instead of at home, with your parents?"

And Moka did not know how to respond.

A second went by before she reacted, and there was no other word for it; she _hissed_, a hateful expression on her face.

"You know _nothing_ of my situation! I never wanted to be here! If I could, I'd be back home!" She bared her teeth in a threatening snarl. "Unfortunately for you, I _can't_. So I'll just continue being a nuisance."

Robin opened his mouth to respond, but she cut him off, unwilling to hear what he had to say.

"I don't care. Go back to being Slade's cute little uke. That role suits you better than being an interrogator."

"Who's-"

They asked a lot of questions, didn't they?

But he never managed to finish. At that moment an alarm blared loudly, and they had to leave to save the day.

Moka was left alone.

-x-x-x-

Mistress sat there for about a minute in the darkness before the lights above her flickered on. She looked over to the door and the 'mirror' next to it. She wondered if another of the Titans was gonna come in and try to get information out of her. But she waited for nothing because nobody came in. She could feel the boredom begin to set in so she ignored how nervous she felt and smiled before getting up and going over to the mirror.

She'd watched enough Law & Order and various other police/crime shows to know that it was a two way mirror. So that meant one or more of the Titans were on the other side. Probably watching her, wondering how they were going to get her and Moka to talk. Mistress grinned deviously and walked right up to the mirror and began fixing herself up to the best of her current abilities.

She straightened out her dress and fixed the straps of her bra. She made sure her 'girls' were perfectly set. Once that was done, she plucked the rose-adorned headband out of her hair and set it on the table behind her. She ran her fingers through her hair and fluffed it out to make it look better. She put her headband back on and stood back to admire her reflection.

Grinning, she started quietly singing the lyrics to 'Pretty Woman', eerily echoing Moka's behaviour in the other room.

"Pretty woman, walking down the street! Pretty woman, the kind I like to meet! Pretty woman, I don't believe you, you're not the truth! No one could look as good as you! Mercy~!"

Mistress knew she was no soul sister or rock diva but she sounded okay enough to sing quietly to herself. Hoping someone was on the other side of the mirror, she leaned forward.

Taking a deep breath, she blew on the glass so her breath fogged it, and quickly drew a heart in the steamy surface before kissing the middle of it with a giggle.

Mistress would have been pleased to note that both Beast Boy and Starfire were on the other side of the glass to see and hear her.

Indeed, they were quite surprised at how the woman acted. Beast Boy blushed as he watched the woman on the other side of the glass. She fiddled with her clothes and hair she began making flirty faces in the mirror. She licked and puckered her lips while her eyes were heavily lidded like a true flirt. Beast Boy thought it was weird, and couldn't help but be bothered by the behaviour. It was a little… too much.

Beast Boy chuckled nervously and turned to Starfire. He jerked his thumb towards the glass. "Man this lady is wacky, huh, Star?"

The green eyed alien cocked her head to the side as she studied Mistress. "She acts as if she were in heat. Or some stage close to it. I've seen behaviour like this from the females on planets near my own home."

Then, the alarm rang, calling out the two Titans to fight yet another enemy. They left, leaving Mistress in the room to dance to an invisible audience.


	3. Escape from the Titan's tower

**Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, and Teen Titans and everything that might be recognizable belongs to their respective authors.**

A/N:

**Moka:** _Update half a month early, because I had nothing better to do. It's exhausting to post ten thousand words per chapter._

-x-x-x-

Moka noticed that the wall was cracked almost immediately. When you're alone in a dark room, you tend to notice things you wouldn't when being interrogated. But it was normal for the wall to be in such a state - a fist had been driven through it. Luckily, her chair was connected to that very wall, and some of the cracks had passed by the bolts of one of the metal bindings holding her down. She struggled for quite a while, trying to loosen the metal straps, but after a few dozen minutes she was just too tired to continue, and she relaxed back in her chair.

The Titans would finish up Jump's latest threat quite quickly, and she knew she had to escape right now or she might end up in jail. And magical remote or not, there was no way to escape such a place, even if she could stop time.

She wiggled, trying to move, and felt her bindings give a little. But it wasn't enough, and she could feel herself becoming desperate.

"C'mon on!"

She tugged again, but there was no denying it; she could not escape.

Slowly, she began to count, knowing that such a thing would at least let her know how much time was passing. It was not like she had anything better to do, and she didn't quite feel like singing.

"56, 57, 58, 59, 60." She took a deep breath and started again. "1, 2, 3..."

Nearly an hour later, she was still doing that, but she figured that before she had begun counting, at least thirty minutes had passed in waiting. So, for about an hour and a half she had been stuck here.

Were the Titans fighting somebody important? Probably. She thought about that for a while, wondering. She had worked on establishing where she and Mistress were in the timeline quite some time ago, and she knew this was pre-series. But perhaps that had changed? Maybe they were out fighting some super villain?

Moka tried to remember the first episode, and thought it was one in which Robin and Cyborg had a fight. The baddies in it had been Cinderblock, and the other, a purple gooey monster whose name she couldn't remember. She was pretty sure that was how the show began, but she couldn't be certain.

She was concentrating so hard on her counting, she nearly missed the slight tremor under her feet.

"Huh?"

She didn't have the time to say much more, before the door was blown open, and a massive man came in, looking wild and dangerous. Despite him being a secondary character, she recognized him easily. Mammoth, of the HIVE.

"Hi?" she squeaked, a nervous smile on her face as she discreetly tested her bonds again.

No luck; she was still stuck in this stupid metal chair, with someone strong enough to behead her.

-x-x-x-

Mistress had become bored to the point of deciding to sleep. So she'd crossed her arms on the table and laid her head down and drifted off.

After an undetermined about of time had passed, she was jolted awake by the sound of a crash. And just as she looked in the direction of the door, flashes of pink were seen zipping about up and down the door, like electricity. Then, its lock simply fell off onto the floor, and the door was violently pushed forward.

Mistress looked up. With widened eyes, she took in the sight of who had just entered the interrogation room.

Her black and purple gothic outfit as well as her bright pink hair made the identity obvious.

'Jinx.' Mistress thought, pursing her lips. She stood up, feeling the need to avoid looking weak. Standing drew attention to her impressive stature and height. Jinx looked her over silently, arms crossed.

There wasn't really any choice on how to act here. Mistress would have to play it cool. She knew that if she wanted Moka and herself to get out of all of this in one piece, she would need to be on Jinx' good side.

"Who're you? Stupid enough to get caught?" Jinx asked, a rather blasé look on her greyish face.

Mistress gave a half shrug. "You know I'm not sure! Hehe~ They kinda just kidnapped me and my friend. Said we robbed a bunch of places! Can you believe that? Two sweet, innocent ladies like us doing all sorts of naughty things~?" Her cheeky grin and slightly sarcastic tone made a smirk appear on Jinx's face, replacing the sneer that had been there just before.

"Hm, the Titans picking up two women for no reason? Sounds scandalous. Nice dress by the way."

"Thanks. Your dress is ultra-cute too. Though, I'll admit it's your hair that's the coolest thing about your look. Very...devilish."

Jinx brushed her fringe self-consciously. "Thanks! You _so_ wouldn't believe how much effort it takes to keep it looking this good!"

Mistress nodded, her expression compassionate and understanding. "Yeah, I can imagine. It must be a grueling hair styling regime. And stupid guys don't even appreciate how hard we girls work on our looks! They think we just roll out of bed and look this good. Ugh."

Jinx seemed to approve of Mistress, and gave a nod. Some days she hated being on a team with two boys. While they all complimented each other in battle there was nothing at all they shared with each other personality wise. All Mammoth or Gizmo ever talked about were boring boy things she had no interest in.

Jinx grinned and waved Mistress over. "Come on~ I'll introduce you to Mammoth and Gizmo, my teammates. Though I warn you, neither of them are very good company. I can barely stand being near them outside of school."

And that was all it took for them to become friends. Some friendships are just meant to be.

-x-x-x-

"If it's not too much of a hassle... Could you help me out?" Moka gave an awkward smile. "The Titans have had me strapped to this chair to long for my tastes, and I reaaaaally need the loo." She decided to ignore the slight tremble in her voice, betraying how nervous she was.

Her speech was designed to appeal to his inner animal. Beasts understood the call of nature, the need to urinate, right? And Moka knew Mammoth was a bit beast-like. She didn't know all that much about him, just that he was a brutish oaf, and she couldn't remember if he ever talked in the cartoon.

"Who're you?" It came out like a grunt.

A crooked smile appeared on Moka's face. Oh. So he could talk.

"Me an' my partner got caught for robbing," – she didn't mention that they hadn't been stealing from banks, like normal villains. Better let him think she was a big shot. Or at least, better than she was. – "and the Titans've been trying to make us talk ever since."

Mammoth didn't notice that she never gave her name; she had distracted him with information, a technique she was quite proficient at.

"So... help me out, would ya?"

The hulking mass came closer, and Moka tried not to let her fear show. If he wanted to kill her, then begging for her life wouldn't help. She had to gain his attention, use some of her knowledge from the cartoons. Unfortunately, she knew nothing about him.

So she did the only thing that made sense; she tried to appeal to his ego.

"Nice hair," she said.

Mammoth stopped, raising a hand to pat his hair, as if suspecting a joke. Maybe his teammates were usually mean to him? Oh, who was she kidding? She'd bet anything Gizmo spent his time ridiculing the larger man.

"My sibling has the same colour," she continued, deciding not to mention that it was her sister. She didn't want him to feel emasculated or something. Who knew how he'd react to her saying that sibling was her lil' sis? "I'm a bit jealous. My hair is just a boring brown."

The villain came closer, and she tried to make herself as small as possible.

Sh*t, she had no way of escaping.

His hand came out towards her, and she flinched, expecting him to break her neck.

However, he simply ripped away the metal holding her down as if it was made of paper, making her squeak, and his massive appendage caught her around the waist, lifting her up. She very nearly vomited at being jostled, but managed to keep it in.

Carrying her like a sack of potatoes, he calmly walked out the room.

-x-x-x-

Mistress and Jinx were walking down one of the long hallways and chatting amiably, when Jinx stopped, a devious smirk on her lips.

"Hey, these rooms up ahead are those loser titan's bedrooms! I found them when I was looking around earlier. Wanna go wreck them? Figured you might want some revenge for them catching you."

"Oh Jinx," Mistress replied. "You naughty thing! You read my mind! Dibs on Raven and Robin's rooms. Those two kids need to take a couple chill pills~ That or take the poles out of their asses. Jeez~ I've never met such uptight kids before. It's like they don't know how to have any fun."

Jinx burst into laughter and led the taller woman forward. They turned to a hall full of doors on either side, and Jinx rapped her knuckles against the metal of the first door they came to. She pressed the button beside the door, and they watched as it slowly opened.

Peeking inside, Mistress quirked an eyebrow the gloomy state of the room.

"This is Raven's room. Let's see what emo girl is hiding~"

The walls, ceiling, and floor were all the same dark grey color. Except for the wall the bed was on. It was painted black and Mistress rolled her eyes when she saw that the canopy of the bed was shaped just like the purple haired girl's hood. Besides that, the room had hanging lamps, odd looking sculptures, a chest and dresser, and little bobbles here and there.

"This is literally the most cliché goth and boring room I've ever been in," Mistress said as she walked in, looking at all the strange little knick knacks.

She picked up an intricately designed hand mirror and looked in it before dropping it in shock.

Jinx dropped the cloak of Raven's she'd been looking at and came over and asked, "What is it?"

Mistress pointed to the, thankfully, not cracked or shattered hand mirror that was lying innocently on the floor. "It...um...I thought I saw something in that mirror. I could have sworn I saw red eyes and teeth. So let's just leave that mirror alone, shall we?" She pushed the mirror under the dresser with the toe of her shoe. Jinx gave the mirror a suspicious glance.

Then they went back to looking around and Mistress grinned when she saw an old treasure chest, like in pirate movies. She opened it. It was full of old looking books. She then started going through them, realizing they were some kind of spell books. She didn't even know if she'd be able to do anything with them but she wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to own books on real magic.

So with a spring in her step Mistress hopped up and quickly divested one of Raven's pillows of its case and began filling the cloth with as many books as she could manage.

Jinx was giving her a exaspered look. "Out of everything in this room you go for the stupid books? Lame."

"Well excuuuuuse me for being a nerd at heart," said the tall woman, hefting the sack of books over her shoulder. "Did you get anything besides the new cloak?" she asked, pointing at the bluish-purple cloak that was draped over the smaller girl's shoulders.

"Yeah, I found a few belts with these red jewels on them but red is… not really my color. It clashes with my pink hair, and I think they might be too small for you." she said in a casual tone.

Mistress nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right. Wanna go see if the other rooms have any better stuff?"

The two left Raven's room a few minutes later, without a backwards glance. They didn't even bother to put anything back in the bedroom. Everything was strewn about or knocked over. It looked like a tornado had gone through, though neither of them seemed to care all that much.

-x-x-x-

"Herm... it's really nice of you to carry me and all, but I can walk, you know?" Moka informed Mammoth.

She shifted a bit to the side, trying to find a comfy position where his shoulder wouldn't be digging into her stomach.

The man grunted, and continued walking. From what she could see, they were making their way down a hall with several doors on each side. He seemed to have a destination in mind, because he didn't stop in front of any of them.

"Uh..." She tried to push herself up, but his grip on her tightened, forcing her down and squishing her ribcage. "That was a hint!" she gasped. "To let me go!"

A few seconds later, Moka and Mammoth finally came to a door at the end of the long hallway, and it opened on its own. Beyond lay the living room, dining room and kitchen of the Titans, all rolled up in one enormous room. The tv was enormous, with long, curved couches facing it, and a low table between them. By the side of the room Moka saw a little child, rummaging through a stack of magazines, swearing loudly every time he found something that he did not like, which was, all the time.

"Ah, finally. Did you flush yourself down the toilet, doofus?" asked the young boy, turning around. Moka didn't have to be a genius to recognize Gizmo.

And then he saw her.

"Who's the pipsqueak?" He cracked his knuckles, as if Moka appeared threatening enough for him to ready for battle.

-x-x-x-

Jinx and Mistress had raided the other titan's rooms. Well, all but Beast Boy's.

They opened his door and Jinx had nearly gagged. Mistress slammed her hand over the button next to the door, making the latter close, and finally they could breathe.

"Good lord! It smells like a barn in there! I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that that was Beast Boy's room. The green animal kid," said Mistress, fanning herself.

"Let's just go find my teammates now," said Jinx. "I want to introduce you before one of them sees you and kills you."

Mistress, used to worse, was unaffected by the thought of her demise.

Jink led her down another hallway and down a flight stairs. Finally, they came to a slightly wider door. Jinx pressed the button next to it.

The door hissed open just as someone from inside said,

"Who's the pipsqueak?"

-x-x-x-

For nothing in the world would she admit it, but Moka was slightly scared of Gizmo. Sure, he was smaller than her, and looked unimpressive, but he had such an aggressive way of talking, it reminded her of her childhood bullies, and she just could not find anything to say to him.

Swallowing, she tried to smile politely, but judging from Gizmo's expression, she must have looked retarded instead.

When the door overlooking the room opened and Mistress stepped out, Moka used the distraction to try and make all this a little less awkward, despite the fact that Mammoth hadn't let her down yet and that she felt threatened, knowing that with the hold he had on her, he could easily break her in two.

"Hey Mis-"

And then came in Jinx, just behind her friend.

"-tress..."

Well, at least everybody was there, now. All she needed to do now was to find a way to ask politely to be set back down without sounding too demanding.

Mistress quirked an eyebrow at the scene she and Jinx had walked onto. She turned to said pink haired girl. "You're right. I am unimpressed."

Jinx laughed into her hand.

Something heavy dropped in her gut as Moka saw Mistress laugh with one of the bad guys. There went the only support she could've hoped for.

"Who the hell are these two?!" Gizmo shouted, fed up with the lack of answers.

Mistress grinned down at the little abomination that was Gizmo and finally answered him. "Hey dude. I'm Mistress. And the girl pretending to be a sack of potatoes is Moka. She's my home-girl."

Mistress grinned up at Moka and said to the hulking mass holding her. "And speaking of my friend, you mind letting her down broski?" Mistress wasn't letting anyone see but she was worried for her friend.

Mammoth, uncaring, dropped Moka none too gently. Unfortunately, she hadn't been ready for it, and with the time she had waited in the interrogation room her legs had gone numb. So the two appendages gave out under her, and she fell down, barely managing to avoid banging her head by catching herself with her hands.

"Ouch!"

Mistress winced and held her hands out for her friend to grab in order to right herself. "Come on hun~ I'll help ya up. Hehehe… Nice landing by the way. Super graceful."

As for Gizmo, he was laughing, seemingly forgetting he had been angry barely seconds ago. Moka's humiliating fall had managed to break the ice, and the tension in the room visibly relented.

"What, didn't yo mama teach you how to walk, pit-sniffer?"

Moka knew better than to become angry in the presence of such a volatile boy. So she smiled.

"Guess I skipped that lesson."

Mistress grinned broadly. "Oh Moka~ You won't believe what me and Jinx here did. We raided the titan's rooms. Well...all but Beast Boy's. His room smelled God awful. And this is Jinx~" she said, pointing at said girl. "She's so cool, I mean look at her fabulous hair. Anyone with hair that fierce looking is bound to be bitchin'~"

Jinx visibly preened.

The corner of Moka's mouth tilted up. "I tried spiking my hair once." She pushed herself up, wobbling a bit, and managed to stand. "It didn't work out as I had hoped. I looked emo."

Being surrounding by potential enemies made her uneasy. It wasn't that she did not like them, it was more the fact that she knew little of them, and didn't know whether they could be trusted or not. Needing some time alone to chill and calm herself, Moka decided to leave. Or at least, leave this room.

"Hey, I'm heading to see those rooms for myself. I've always wanted to try on Starfire's boots." Her smile turned more real at the thought. "Catch you guys in a mo'?"

Mistress noticed the very slight wobble in Moka's voice and figured she was nervous to be around all these villains. Perhaps she was shy? "Sure Moka. Do you want me to show you where they are? They're a bit a ways from here ya know."

Straightening her spine as she walked away, Moka said, "S'okay, I'll find it." And she would rather Mistress stayed to keep an eye with the others, just in case.

"Be careful! Don't get lost!" Mistress called out, just as the heavy doors slid closed behind Moka.

She turned back to the three other people in the room. Her lips quirked up in a grin when she saw the large tv that was on one side of the room.

"Damn! That's one huge-ass tv! That's close to being theater size. You guys wanna watch tv or..." Mistress gasped when she saw a gaming device of some kind of discs next to it. There were also a few controllers oddly similar to playstation ones.

"Do you guys wanna play some games?" Mistress knew the answer when Mammoth and Gizmo perked up at the mention of it.

-x-x-x-

Moka got lost fairly quickly. She didn't really want to have a look at Starfire's room, she just wanted a bit of peace and some time to herself. Some doors she could open, others had motion detectors and opened by themselves. A rare few were locked, so she didn't bother with them.

Curious, she took a peek inside one of the rooms, and discovered what could only be a big storage space, filled with sports equipment. A few doors later she found the loo, and she vowed to remember where it was placed, knowing how awful it was to need to pee and have no toilets in sight.

Gradually, she began to relax, and think logically of the situation.

She knew that the first season of Teen Titans had begun, recognizing she was in the first or second episode. The Titans saw her as a criminal, and were definitively against her and Mistress. To top it all off, they were stuck with the HIVE!

Of course, Mistress seemed perfectly content with it, but Moka was more realistic about their situation: they could only count on themselves, and they needed to leave, as soon as possible. However, she had no idea how she could clue her friend in, because the latter seemed to have attached herself to Jinx, and might not want to leave.

As she turned round a corner, she felt something that made her stop. The knot of nervousness she had been feeling was gone, and something heavy had settled in her grasp. Slowly, she raised her hand, a growing smirk on her face.

The remote had finally come back.

-x-x-x-

Mistress and Jinx were playing some racer game that involved two colourful cars. Whoever won got to play against Gizmo. They'd been playing since Moka left and were having fun. Just as Mistress was about to cross the game's last checkpoint something happened. The constant feeling of anxiety and dread that manifested itself in the pit of her stomach when she and Moka had been captured suddenly...dissipated. And Mistress didn't know why, all she knew was she felt a hundred times better. She felt free. Like going back home, or being with someone you loved.

-x-x-x-

Moka wasn't sure about the use of the remote yet. And she wanted to continue exploring anyway. If she paused while Mistress was with the others, then they'd see something wasn't right when she pressed play and Mistress wasn't in the same position as before, even by a few centimeters. Moka would rather keep their ability to stop time a secret, for now.

After a few minutes, she found a room that had her pursing her lips, before entering it. It took her some time to find what she was looking for, but pretty soon she came back out with a heavy object pressed against her chest, a devious smile on her lips. She was changing the plot.

-x-x-x-

Back in the entertainment/living room, Mistress and Gizmo were in a fierce battle to see who was going to be the racing game champion. Mistress had already beaten Jinx, while Gizmo had beaten Mammoth. The two losers were sitting on the couch watching the game on the screen. Jinx seemed a bit sullen at her loss.

Mistress couldn't believe how easy the game was. Its simplistic design and controls were child's play to her. After all the years of playing difficult games like the Halo series, all sorts of Mario games, Sonic, Bioshock and other adventure/puzzle type games, this one was a piece of cake.

When you watched Teen Titans, you didn't think much of the games Cyborg and Beastboy played together, but it had always looked easy, though probably because the creators of the show didn't want to spend time working on such a tiny little aspect, that now defined the videogames of the world Mistress lived in.

She maneuvered her little red car further up the looping track and pressed the nitro button, which shot her car zooming passt Gizmo's green one and through the finish line.

Gizmo was gaping in shock. He couldn't believe someone had actually beaten him in a video game. And it was a girl!

"Oh yeah~!" shouted Mistress in glee, throwing away her controller. "Who's your Mommy?! Hahaha~! That's right, it's me~! Oh yes, I won!"

"I demand a do-over!" yelled Gizmo, enraged. "You probably cheated anyways! Girls always cheat! Do-over! DO-OVER!" He threw his own controler at the screen but it didn't even make a scuff.

The door of the living room opened wide, letting Moka in. No one paid attention to her.

Uncaring of the fact that she was about to interrupt them, she pressed pause on the remote hidden within the folds of her clothes, nervously eyeing the robotic arm mounted on a nearby wall.

"Mistress, I got the remote back, so we can bail now."

The woman breathed a sigh of relief. She got off the comfy couch and walked over to Moka. At the last minute, a funny idea hit her brain and she jogged back to Gizmo to unplug his controller from the consol.

"Can't let the little shit have a false victory, now can I?" Upon seeing Moka with a rather large bulge hiding under her clothes, curiosity took over. "Whatcha got there girlie?"

Moka patted the rectangular lump by the side of her stomach, covered by her top.

"I've got it hidden here 'cause the whole tower has cameras EVERYWHERE, and I can't afford the Titans to know what I took," she said as she began pulling it out. "So we can't unpause until we've left, or it'll be on camera."

She held up an old dusty tome.

"Dont'cha recognize Malchior's book?"

Mistress squinted. She took her glasses out and put them on to take another look at the white and silver book. Irritated, she wracked her brain for the information she was looking for. She knew she knew that name from somewhere in the show but couldn't remember where from. She was aware that anything involving an old tome type book had a 99% chance of being directly involved with Raven.

Then it clicked in her mind and she snapped her fingers. "Hey… yeah! Wasn't Mal-whatever that paper mummy looking guy in that one episode that turned out to be a dragon that was a total A-hole? He, like, tricked Raven or something. Wait… am I thinking of someone else? No. No, I'm sure that's right. Right?"

Moka nodded.

"Yes. He's trapped in this book. In the episode, he tricked Raven and made her release him. It was one of my favourite episodes from the show, so that's why I found this book so easily. Since we've been making major changes in the series, I was thinking that we'd just get rid of anything that could cause problems, in case our meddling changes something and makes the Titans loose. Since I took this, there's no chance Malchior will come out. And I was thinking we could get rid of another potential threat..."

Her eyes strayed to the side, where the HIVE were.

Mistress followed her gaze and looked over the frozen HIVE members. She felt bad for whatever they were going to do but shook that feeling off just as fast as it came. She knew that they would do worse to them at the drop of a hat. Moka was probably only thinking of turning them in. When she said 'get rid of' somebody who didn't know the smaller woman might believe she meant to kill them.

Mistress knew Moka didn't have what it took to actually kill someone, let alone three someones. Plus, after watching the series Mistress knew there was a higher chance of Mammoth and Gizmo sticking to the life of crime. And though there was a good deal of hope for Jinx to change… that time was a long ways off; she hadn't met Kid Flash yet.

So with a sigh Mistress nodded her head, knowing what they had to do.

"We have to turn them over to the Titans don't we? But...is there any way to do it without implicating ourselves?"

Moka shook her head. "No, if we turn them in, the Titans will never let us leave. I say we tie them up, so that when the Titans come back, they'll have a package ready to be delivered to the authorities. And because you took the time to play with them, there is a chance that they won't suspect you when we un_pause_ and they find themselves tied up."

She pointed towards the door she had come from a minute ago.

"There's a room full of equipment that way, with rope and stuff in it. Will ya help me with the carrying? You're stronger than I am, and together we should manage."

Mistress agreed and followed her friend to the after mentioned room.

"Wait, won't we need to knock them all out? I mean...I'm positive all three of them can escape from some simple rope."

Biting her lip, Moka carefully considered their options.

"I don't know how much it'll take to knock the big one out, but I suppose we can try. I didn't find any handcuffs or something, so we'll have to use what we have." She felt a bit guilty for what she was about to do to those villains, but if it could maybe get the both of them into the Titans' good graces, then she wouldn't hesitate.

"Let's hit them on the head. They'll only feel it when we un_pause_, and with enough hits they might have a concussion."

Mistress's lips twitched before she cracked up. She began laughing, and did so so hard that tears formed in her eyes. She wasn't sure why but she found the idea of being able to actually give someone a concussion, and them have no idea they did it, hilarious. She giggled while Moka stood next to her for a good minute. Once her laughter died down she coughed and tried to compose herself, knowing she had lost a bit of her pride there.

She hastily tried to explain herself to her friend, who she hoped didn't think she was nuts. "Sorry Moka." She chuckled. "I just thought that was really funny. We could totally kick someone's ass and they would never know we did it. Hahahahaa~ Oh my god, that is so ridiculously funny to me." She started snickering again.

Smiling, Moka gently patted her friend's back. "Yeaaah, hitting someone without consequences is really funny." Her tone clearly implied she didn't believe a word she had just said. "Now, pull yourself together, we have work to do. Once we're finished, we'll have to run back to the hotel and hope the Titans didn't take our stuff yet."

If their belongings were still there, then they'd have to move to a different hotel anyway. They had enough money to cover for a few days at any cheapo hotel.

Mistress cleared her throat and tried to act serious. Briskly, she stalked forward and started going through the storage boxes. After searching through a few, she found one that held nets, and right underneath it was a box full of rope. She pulled it down.

"I found some rope and some net. Now we need to find something heavy enough to knock them out with."

She shoved things back into boxes and tried putting them back in place. She hoped they weren't supposed to be in any special order or anything, because she was just placing them in such a way so that they looked semi-neat.

"And," she continued. "I think I should be the one to knock them out. I'm not sure if you're strong enough to know how hard to hit them. Okay?"

Pretending she hadn't been looking for a way to make Mistress do it all along, Moka gave her consent. "Yes, that's a very good idea. I'll let you hit them, and we'll tie them down together."

She blushed, remembering the conversation she had had with Mistress about what the taller girl liked to do in her free time.

With a cough, she said, "Yeah, well, I'm really good with impossible knots, and you have plenty of experience, so it'll be fine. And we should drop heavy stuff on Mammoth, so if he isn't unconscious, he'll have trouble escaping. Maybe we could trap him under a table, and _rajouter_ _aussi_ loads of those computers and chairs over there. It might give the Titans some time to properly tie him down."

"Okay~ I'll start looking for something heavy enough to knock someone out. Do you think there are any skillets in that kitchen area? That would work perfectly." Unable to find anything that could cause a big enough concussion, Mistress left the room to return to the living/entertainment room, carrying some rope with her.

"I'm going to look for a frying pan," she shouted over her shoulder.

Moka stayed in the room filled with rope, chairs, papers and all sorts of things. This was probably some sort of dumping ground for the Titans, where they put everything they didn't want to take care of.

Setting the Malchior book down, she began to look for something useful that would bludgeon someone into unconsciousness.

"And to think, a month ago I was at home, worrying about school."

-x-x-x-

Mistress tossed the rope down on the counter of the kitchenette. Crouching down, she began looking through various cupboards for a skillet. There weren't any in there, so she had to look in the drawer built into the bottom of the stove. With a triumphant "Ah-ha!", Mistress hefted a large iron skillet out from its nook and sat it on the counter so she could get up. After doing so, she picked the object up and swung it back and forth, trying to accustom herself to its weight.

-x-x-x-

Meanwhile, Moka had found some sort of heavy metal chains, with padlock and all, that seemed big enough to stop anything. There was a pile of those chains hidden in a corner, under several old newspapers. She managed to pick one up, but barely. It was extremely heavy. To move them all she'd have to carry them into the living room one at a time.

"Mistress!" she yelled. "I need ya help to carry some stuff."

Gosh, it was heavy. It felt as if she were carrying twenty kilos. Her back was threatening to break in two.

-x-x-x-

Mistress turned toward the direction Moka was calling her from and laid down the pan. She dusted her knees off, and walked back towards the small storage room. What she saw was amusing; Moka was trying to carry a length of thick chain that seemed far too heavy for her smaller – though still of normal proportions, unlike amazon Mistress - frame. Mistress saw there were a few lengths left, so she went over and picked one up.

It wasn't too heavy, felt like it was about 40 pounds. She's definitely lifted heavier before. So, shrugging, she wrapped the one in her hands around her left arm, and then used her right arm to pick another length up.

"I'll carry these to the living room," she said.

Moka struggled with the chains for a bit longer, before deciding the only way she could do anything was to drag them. With as much strength as possible, she started pulling at the end of the chain, and it slid on the floor, moving towards her.

When she finally managed to join Mistress, she said, "How about you carry in the other chains, and I start tying up Gizmo and Jinx with the rope?" Because frankly, heavy lifting just wasn't for her.

Mistress pointed to the electronic equipment on Gizmo.

"Yeah, but you should take all electronic things off the kid too. Just to be safe."

It didn't take long for them to tie everyone up, and hit them enough times to ensure they would no longer be aware once time resumed its course. And few heavy objects were dropped on Mammoth in case his hard skull wouldn't feel the impacts, and they left.

Since the front door opened only when there was movement, and it was currently _paused_, they couldn't exit that way, so they had to crawl out of a window, and survive a short drop of two meters that seemed quite frightening to Moka. She was careful with the old book in her possession, knowing that despite who was stuck in it, it was still an ancient book, and she could give a relic of the past the respect it was due.

The only problem was that they had no way of leaving the island the T-tower was on, and Moka wasn't sure if swimming was safe, since the water had stopped all movement.

Hesitantly, her hand came down to test if the water's consistence had changed, and she discovered that with the fact that all movement had stopped, it took quite a lot of strength for her hand to sink in, as if the atoms weren't quite registering her presence.

"Mistress... I don't think we'll need to swim. With time stopped, and since the molecules are no longer moving, I think we can WALK on the water."

Mistress pursed her lips and hesitantly stuck her high-heeled, boot-covered foot on the water. Slowly, she applied pressure. She was afraid that with her heavy weight, she would sink. And though she did begin doing so, she was relieved when she only went about six inches down before she stopped sinking.

She tried to pull her foot out and grimaced when she felt her boot come out with a squishy noise of suction. She shook the gelatenous water bits from the tall boot.

"Well at least I know I won't sink and die. So let's go." She took her boots off and held both in on hand to avoid them becoming wet. At a quick pace, she began walking on the blue surface.

Moka's high heeled shoes came off fairly quickly, once she realized they didn't have a proper grip on her feet and would probably stay stuck in the water. Wobbling, she took a few steps, but the uneven ground was quite difficult to walk on, and she could feel the water shifting under her feet.

"I'm Jeeeeeeeesuuuuuus!" She yelled, throwing up her arms in glee. Unfortunately, she wasn't holding on to Malchior's book correctly and it escaped her grasp, staying still mid-air. Luckily, time was stopped, and gravity wasn't working on anything but them. Had it not been, that book would have been positively drenched.

Mistress laughed. She wobbled over to her friend, took the book and reached an arm out to steady her friend.

It took them a good deal of time but they finally made it all the way across the large expanse of still water. They had to walk around a couple frozen waves but other than that, they encountered no trouble at all.

And Mistress would never admit it, but about half way across she had looked down and felt ice cold fear gripping her throat, spreading throughout her body, at the sight of the abyss beneath her. She was so glad the water was like a slightly harder version of jello, because she wasn't the best swimmer and was afraid to flounder and drown.

It felt like hours, but Moka was sure the time it took for them to cross over was half an hour at best. Their hotel was quite far away, but she wasn't willing to risk the Titans finding them before they had the time to move to another hotel. So they had to walk all the way to their small hotel.

Once there, they still had the problem of finding somewhere to put all their stuff. They didn't know where they'd move to, so they had no idea where to bring their belongings to. After all, the Titans knew where they lived; they had to find a new place to settle now.

"Mistress," asked Moka, worried. "What should we do know? We have to move, but there's no way we can move this in one trip. And where will we go? We have to find a new hotel now."

"Okay, listen closely Moka," said Mistress, recognizing her friend's distress. "We're going to walk to the hotel while everything is stopped, _paused_. We're going to change clothes. Something simple, dark, and easy to move in. Something that will help us blend into the crowd if need be."

Mistress sat down on the small bit of beach they were on, and put her boots back on.

"We're going to pack up all of our stuff and then we're going to find ourselves a moving truck or at the very least a windowless van. I don't care if we rent one, buy one, or steal one. But we need somewhere we can keep our stuff but still have the plus of being able to move it if need be. And once we have that then we can safely find somewhere to live for now. Sound good?"

"But..." protested Moka. "How are we going to buy a van? Don't we need papers or something for that? Because the police can know thanks to the number plate, who owns a car, and that must mean you have to show some form of identification! No." She shook her head.

The idea seemed too hard for them to complete, considering they didn't want to leave any trails behind them for the Titans to follow.

"I say one of us walks to a nice hotel, and unpauses, just long enough to rent a room for the week, and then she pauses again. That'll be a signal for the other one to start bringing the stuff down in the lobby, and together we can carry some of the stuff over! We'll have to do several trips, but it should be okay. That'll have to do, until we find a more permanent solution for our stuff. Maybe we could buy one of those storage spaces? D'you think they have that here?"

Mistress sighed and kept her thoughts on the matter to herself. She didn't want to upset her friend so she just gave a half smile and nodded. "Yeah that sounds like a plan. Do you want to go in once we find a hotel or do I?"

Mistress knew she was going to have to set some time aside later after they got settled to run a few… personal errands. Once Moka fell asleep would be the best time. And she'd make sure the remote was with her as well, just in case she got into a spot of bother. She'd have to find a way to get them some papers. Credentials, if you will. It shouldn't be too hard. If she could get a fake ID that could fool the cops from their universe, then she could get some here as well.

And maybe she could start working on setting some ties with some influential people. Mistress grinned when a machiavellic, and ingenious, thought wormed its way into her head. But a second later the smile turned softer and she decided to think of that idea later. Perhaps when she could relax and think more clearly.

Moka, unaware of her friend's thoughts, frowned. "I don't know... how about you go, since you look more adult, and I'll go to our room? Here." she gave Mistress the remote. "Take care of it."

With her shoes back in place, Moka was satisfied and ready to go.

"See you soon, then!"

Mistress pursed her lips, huffing, before she began her trek in search of a nearby hotel.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, she came across a fairly nice looking one. She reached in her pocket and frowned when she saw she was out of money. Groaning in annoyance, she used her time-stopping abilities to play pickpocket in order to get her hands on some cash.

"That should be enough," she said tiredly. She'd gotten almost a hundred dollars before she stopped.

She headed into the alley behind the hotel and pressed _play._ Then she entered the building and walked over to the front desk. Luckily, since she was using cash, she didn't need any ID. She just had to sign her name and pay in advance.

She signed the first name that came to mind, which ironically turned out to be Irene Adler. Mistress inwardly laughed.

Once outside and alone, out of sight, she pressed _pause_ and trekked towards their old hotel to help Moka.

-x-x-x-

The moment everything started moving again, Moka's slow walk become more of a fast jog, as she tried to avoid the people looking at her oddly. Like most, they'd just think it was their mind playing tricks on them, and that she hadn't just appeared out of thin air.

She was nearly at the hotel anyway, and figured Mistress must've found a place that was closer. She ran up to their room and left the door half-opened behind her, for Mistress.

When she felt time _stop_, she had barely begun placing some books in a plastic bag. It had become second nature for her to notice how the sounds would stop, and how she couldn't smell anything anymore when in _Pause_, so it was quite easy to notice her friend had used the remote again.

When Mistress arrived, Moka had managed to pack half their stuff into some bags they had, but was having trouble finding any more backpacks or plastic bags.

Mistress noticed that fact right away, and left with a "Be right back!", presumably to get more bags.

The woman ran down the hallways, until she crossed a hotel maid and her cart, frozen down the hallway. She rushed over and pilfered some of the lady's trash bags, then hurried back to the room.

She ran in and tossed the bags at Moka. The girl barely managed to catch them.

Picking out a pair of dark jeans, a tee, and a black hoodie, Mistress went to their bathroom to change.

"I'll pack my stuff when I get out, just leave me some bags," she said loudly, knowing Moka could hear her through the wall.

It took longer than Moka would have wanted, but quite soon they were all ready and set in their new room. To ensure they wouldn't be found by the Titans again, it was decided that they would change hotels every two weeks at the least.

Their new room in their new hotel was a shared one, with two beds. It had a small tv, but no minibar. Moka resolved to only rent rooms with minibars from now on, because they often stole perishables.

That evening, they ate some candy, too lazy to leave the room, and talked about their eventful day.

"Hey, Mistress... I was thinking of starting a sport, and maybe singing in a choir again. It's just, we never have much to do, and I'd like to stay occupied. Don't you feel the same?"

Mistress actually thought this was a fantastic idea, and said so:

"That's a great idea, Moka~ You were looking a bit blue before the whole 'Titans' incident. Getting out more and finding something to do will be good for you~!" And though she was all for this idea, it wasn't for the reason Moka probably thought. Mistress figured she could get some of those mentioned errands done while Moka did her thing. It was perfect.

Having to wait until Moka finally dragged herself to bed would have been a pain. Some of the things she'd need to get done and out of the way had to be done during the day. Just as she thought that, another thought pushed itself to the front of her mind.

"Hey Moka~ What do you think of us getting a couple disposable cell phones? Just in case we need to contact each other while we're out doing our own things~"

"Phones?" Moka echoed. "Yes, that would be a good idea. However, I don't really know where we could find some." She popped a few smarties in her mouth. "D'you?"

She didn't have the energy to change into pyjamas, yet she felt the aching need to lie down and sleep. In a few minutes, she decided, she would brush her teeth, take her clothes off and let Morpheus take her. Hopefully, nothing major would happen tomorrow, and she would be able to sleep in.

"Yeah," said Mistress. "If this world is anything like ours, then you can buy them at any drug store or Wal-Mart type store. I'll get us some either later today or tomorrow. How about we just relax and get some real food. I don't know about you, but after all that work and stress I'm ready to just pig out on some comfort food until I'm fit to burst. And maybe watch some tv while I'm at it. Sound like a plan?"

Moka looked down at the sweets they had been eating. "I think I've had enough, thanks. If you want anything healthy, you'll have to buy it. But it's pretty late, so I don't know if anything's open. I'm gonna brush my teeth and go to bed; I'm really tired. D'you wanna go to bed, or would you like to stay up and read or watch some tv?"

Mistress tapped her finger on her chin like she was thinking about it, though she already knew what she was gonna do. "I think I'll stay up a bit longer. Watch some tv, maybe go out and grab a treat. I saw a 24 hour taco joint down the street. Maybe I'll give them a try. But you go on ahead and get your sleep on."

"Just try to keep the tv volume to a minimum, please."

Since they had only one shared room, with the tv a few meters from Moka's bed, she would rather not be kept awake because there was too much sound.

Briskly brushing her teeth, Moka did her customary squats in the bathroom, and before she went to bed she performed ten sit ups. This little routine was to ensure she didn't gain too much weight, considering the amount she ate on a regular basis.

Snuggling under the covers, her arm came out to switch off the light next to her bed, leaving the only source of light to be Mistress' bedside lamp.

"Nighty-night."

-x-x-x-

Mistress quietly ate the rest of her gummies and turned the tv down to a low volume so Moka could get some sleep. She heard Moka's breathing even out a few long minutes later, and figured it was safe to get up and get ready now.

Slowly, she crept from her bed and pulled out something different to wear. The black lace top was easy to get on but the tight black pants were another matter. Once she got them on she had to admit she looked hot. And the sparkling red heels were just icing on the fashionable cake.

Mistress froze when she heard coughing. She thought it was Moka but was relieved when it turned out to be their 'neighbours' to the left. Mistress applied some daring eye makeup and a coat of plain shimmering gloss to her lips. She brushed her hair and grabbed some cash as well as the remote. Just in case anything she got into went south. Mistress stopped and looked down at the sleeping Moka and felt guilt well within her. She felt bad for just leaving Moka here. But she swallowed it down.

'I've got nothing to feel guilty over. We've been here in this world for what feels like forever and I've spoken to nobody but Moka and a couple others in that whole time. And I'm beginning to get wound up and lonely. Moka won't be mad if I get a little...'entertainment' for the night. It's a perfectly natural human craving.'

Mistress nodded to herself resolutely and with one last look at her 'Dark Mistress' persona reflection in the mirror, she stepped out of the room and locked the door behind her. She would only be gone for a few hours to get a little R&R. Moka would be fine until she got back.

Easily, the woman got a taxi and was driven across town. She was dropped off after half an hour.

She filched a descent amount of cash from passer-by's before she picked out a club and used the remote to sneak in. After she came inside, she went to the ladies room. Feeling ready, pressed _play_ and hid the object in her bra.

Then she just waltzed out of the bathroom and made her way to the bar. She grabbed a stool and scanned the room for potential evening mates.

She held back the grimace when she saw how boring everyone looked. They all looked so...generic and unappealing. But then a sketchy looking man walked passed her. Mistress smiled coyly when she saw him glance back at her. She was fairly good at reading the people around her and this guy looked like a biter. When he sat in the empty seat next to her and grinned, she saw his sharp canines and knew he liked to mark his sleeping partners. This one _had_ to be a biter.

And Mistress would freely admit she was just as guilty of that as he looked to be. For extra effect, she smiled a bit wider when she watched him order two drinks.

He handed one to her and sipped his, not once taking his eyes off her. Though they did roam up and down her figure, they never left. Mistress gave him a cheeky wink before clinking her glass against his in a toast.

They flirted, teased, and touched for the next hour. And apparently he liked to be called Darren. And Mistress introduced herself as Missy~ Soon enough she asked him things and he answered, before they switched and he was asking. And after lots of giggles and suggestive looks, as well as 7 good drinks, they were leaving the club together.

They stumbled into his loft and headed for the bed. Mistress smirked deviously, pushing him down onto the bed. Living up to her name, she showed him how to properly submit, and Mistress was pleased to note how eager he seemed with the whole thing. He looked so excited, like he'd never entertained the thought of bottoming before. Which Mistress thought was so cute.

At around 3:30 a.m. Mistress realized the time and winced. It was later than she thought. She got up and tried to be quiet as she wiggled back into her clothes. However, she froze when she heard the sheets rustle behind her as Darren got up.

His eyes widened a bit. "You're...leaving? On your own?" He sounded so shocked. Mistress didn't it know it, but usually he was the one kicking the girls out after the fun.

Darren felt a bit awkward as he watched the curvy dominatrix put her clothes back on. He hadn't known about those kinds of women before he'd met her, and though it's against his rules, he was seriously thinking of trading numbers with her.

Before he could think on it further Mistress walked over and kissed him on the mouth. With that done, she headed for the door.

"Maybe I'll see you again at the bar, then again maybe not," she said.

Then she was gone.

Mistress had never felt so relaxed, rested, and rejuvenated~! She knew she'd just needed a good shag. And with an air of contentment Mistress hailed another taxi.

Thirty minutes later, she paid the driver and entered the silent hotel, using the key every resident was provided with. She went to their room and quietly changed into her nightgown. After cleaning up, she flopped onto her bed and turned the lights off, leaving the room in almost total darkness as she drifted to sleep.

-x-x-x-

Next morning, Moka was woken up by the sun shining in her face. Groaning, she buried herself deeper under the covers, seeking refuge from the light like a vampire (a proper one, mind you, not one of those modern versions!).

She retrieved her watch from under a pile of clothes, and saw that it was quite late. That explained her headache; she always had one when she slept longer than ten hours.

"Missy Mistreeeeeeeeeeessssss! Time to wake up! We got a whole new day here! And I totally wanna check out the local church for a choir, and maybe see if I can take sports lessons or something."

She was going to look for that herself, but she felt a bit bad about her friend, who clearly needed a hobby too. They both needed an occupation. Tilting her head, Moka thought deeply.

Hmmm... Mistress seemed like the dancing type that liked to have fun. Perhaps she could look for a nice dance club and buy a membership card for Mistress or something, as a surprise. Moka didn't know how to do that, but she figured it couldn't be that hard.

She glanced back at her friend. Was the girl that much of a heavy sleeper?

"Mistressy!"

Mistress groaned and buried herself further under her sheets. Her temples were throbbing from the drinks she'd had last night and she just wanted to sleep some more. Hesitantly, she looked over to the standard hotel bedside clock and grimaced when she saw what time it was. She'd only gotten about half her usual amount of sleep.

She had heard Moka rising from her bed and _knew_ the girl wanted them to be up and running in order to greet the rather unwanted (in her opinion) day. So with a tired sigh, Mistress got up from bed.

She stretched her tired muscles and groaned blissfully when her back popped loudly, the vertebrae aligning properly. Tiredly, she proceeded to crack her neck and pop her knuckles, the ensuing sounds loud in the single room. Though it sounded painful it was actually quite relaxing. After it was done, the tall woman stood gathered what she was going to be wearing for the day.

"Do you want the bathroom first or can I take it?"

Moka, who was quite fast cleaning up and preparing herself, stated that she would rather use the bathroom first.

Having taken a shower yesterday after the stressful event of being kidnapped by a bunch of adolescents, she only washed her body with some water from the sink, leaving her hair alone.

She brushed her teeth to rid herself of her nasty breath, and threw on some clothes on top of her undergarments. A pair of baggy black trousers, a pastel pink tank top, her favourite watch, and some grey socks. Too lazy to slap on some makeup, she decided to forego that.

"I'm all set to go," she said. "I should be back in a few hours. If I'm not back before this evening, then assume the worst and press _pause_. You never know."

She opened the bathroom door wide to show her friend that she could take her turn.

Mistress nodded sleepily. She let out a big yawn and walked into the bathroom.

"Okay~ I'll go out and get us each a cell phone. Where are you going again?" She turned the small shower on and waited for the water to get warm enough for her to get in.

"I'm going to see the local churches for the choir, and maybe look for some sport or something I could do," Moka said, rubbing at some eyeliner under her eyes that she had forgotten to take off yesterday.

"Okay~" Mistress yelled back. "Have fun or whatever. Keep a low profile though." Then she closed the bathroom door, stripped down, and stepped under the warm spray. Exhausted, she let her head rest against the tile wall as the water pounded down on her sore back.

-x-x-x-

It was quite strange, to find herself outside. After what had happened yesterday, Moka couldn't quite shake the feeling she was being constantly watched. She knew it was ridiculous; had the Titans found her, she wouldn't be walking free right now. Despite it all, she took care to not do anything that would receive attention, and walked silently along the crowded streets.

Not knowing where she should go, she finally decided to ask someone where the local church was. She approached a young mother with her child, and was given specific instructions. It was a bit far, but she had nothing else to do anyway, and she would rather not take a bus and risk getting lost. She had a terrible sense of direction, and she didn't feel too confident about public transports yet. At least if she walked, she would know how to return to the hotel.

Humming, she swayed to the beat of the _Smile_ song in her head, imagining Pinkie Pie and her ability to make anyone smile. The mere thought had her nostalgic about home, but with renewed resolve, she trudged forward, deciding to make this life happy, until she returned to her family.

The church she went to was a nice one, and Moka had no troubles entering it. However, she couldn't seem to find anyone present. She wasn't about to loudly ask if someone was there, so she stayed by the bulletin board full of adverts near the entrance. Reading through some of the advertisements, she saw one under two adverts about how Jesus could 'save your life', and it was for a choir. Unfortunately, it was only about the concert they would soon be giving, but she ripped off the paper anyway, so she could try and see where they practiced, later on.

Since the choir idea hadn't really given her anything substantial, she went in search for a fitness centre, or somewhere she could do a little daily sport.

-x-x-x-

Mistress was dozing off under the warm spray, so to avoid falling asleep, she hurriedly cleaned up. Once dry, she wiped the steam off the mirror and looked her nude body over. She counted the multiple scars that littered her stomach and sides with indifference. She saw them every day so they didn't bother her anymore. Though, she did smirk when she saw the fresh bite marks and hickeys that were on her collar bone and breasts.

"I knew he was a biter. Heh~ I'm never wrong when it comes to guessing other peoples kinks," she said in satisfaction.

Opening the door, she walked out of the bathroom, not even bothering to cover herself. Moka was out and the shades were drawn so there was no real danger in prancing around nude. But the room's cool air finally got to her and she dressed.

Like Moka had done, she decided on not wearing anything sexy like heels or dresses, and just wear some jeans, a V-neck tee, a tight half hoodie, and her chucks, instead.

Dressed, she sat on the edge of her bed and contemplated what she was going to do. She kind of wanted to just crawl back into bed and sleep, but she knew she had some things to get done.

"I guess now would be a good time to go get those cell phones."

She grabbed the remote and the remaining money from the night before that she'd left under her pillow.

When she reached down to grab her purse, the largest scar on her side stung painfully. She hissed, and stood up straight to make it stop. Mistress grit her teeth until the searing pain faded. She'd almost forgotten how painful that could be. With all that had happened in this cartoon world, she was surprised it hadn't begun hurting sooner.

"Okay, note to self: Get extra strength pain pills when you go out."

Unwilling to bend down again, she used her foot to lift her purse up to her hand. She stuffed her things in it, and brushed her hair back. Ready, she left, locking the room on the way out.

-x-x-x-

A bit later, Mistress was walking down the busy inner city street at a leisurely pace. Her shopping bags were at her side, lightly brushing against her leg with each step she took. She'd picked up a large bottle of pain relievers as well as two prepaid cell phones. She bought had the phones with the most minutes on them, which happened to be a modest 500 minutes each. They were nondescript black flip phones, nothing fancy or special about them.

Mistress didn't know what to do next. She'd already picked up the phones and such, and she knew Moka would probably be gone for a while longer. But suddenly something caught her eye.

She looked across the way and saw two teenage boys being yelled at by an older man. Mistress quirked an eyebrow, overhearing what was going on quite easily, thanks the older man's shouts. Apparently, the two teens had been caught shoplifting, and now the man was about to call the cops.

Mistress frowned. That sounded really boring.

'They look like they know some fun places to hang, so what will this cost me?' she thought as she let a look of anger and worry wash over her features.

She stormed over to the three males and grabbed the younger two of the three by their arms and yelled, "And just where have you two been?! I've been looking all over Jump for you! I almost had a heart attack from the worry and stress you've both caused me!"

The two boys just looked horribly confused.

"You know these two derelicts miss?" asked the old man.

Mistress looked at him, her feature carefully crafted. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. They're my younger brothers."

Taking on a look of wary curiosity, she asked, "Why? What have they done this time? If they broke anything of yours then I apologize~ I've just been so busy working two jobs in order to keep us afloat. I haven't been able to keep as close an eye on them as before. They've gotten a bit out of hand since our mom passed away."

The two 'derelicts' didn't seem to know what to say.

Mistress rubbed her temples like she was in pain and looked back up at the man, tears glistening in her bluish green eyes. "If they've damaged anything of yours then I'll try my best to pay for it. But… does it have to be all at once? Maybe I can pay in lump sums…"

The man's shoulders slumped and he sighed, suddenly looking ten years older. "Well… they didn't break anything. They just tried to steal some things from my convenience store. But I guess since nothing got taken then… I can let them off the hook this once. But they aren't allowed in my store anymore!" said the man, a stern look on his face.

"Thank you so much," said Mistress, her tone as kind and happy as possible. "You don't know what this means to me." Then, she turned back to the two boys and gave them disappointed looks.

"Well, go on boys! Tell the man thank you for not calling the cops on you!"

They both shuffled their feet and said unanimously, "Uh...thanks sir."

Mistress sighed and pulled them along down the street. She waved goodbye to the man one last time. Once they were out of the man's line of sight Mistress began giggling like a school girl.

"Oh man I can't believe that schmuck fell for that pile of lies~! Heeheehee~!"

The two boys grinned up at her.

"Man you really saved our tails back there. Whatcha name?" asked the taller boy.

"You can call me Mistress~" replied Mistress with a catty smirk.

Said boy blushed at her licentious tone, though it was discreet.

"And what do you both call yourselves? Am I just supposed to name you both Thing 1 and Thing 2? Haha~"

"You can call me Sammy," said the shorter one.

"And I'm Cash, babe." The other boy slicked back his hair and let his shades slip down his nose so he and Mistress could look each other in the eye when he said it.


End file.
